Chariot Resources Limited (TSX:CHD) owns one of the world's premier advanced stage copper projects. The Mina Justa Project located on the Company's 70% owned Marcona Copper Property in Peru is rapidly advancing toward production. The Project enjoys proximity to key infrastructure including roads, power, water, skilled labour and several ports. The Mina Justa deposit has 6.8 billion pounds of copper in the ground, based on over 220,000 metres of drilling.

In April, 2009, Chariot announced the results of the Feasibility Study for the Mina Justa Project. At US$ 2.00/lb for copper and a discount rate of 8%, the pre-tax NPV of the project is US$616.2 million on a 100% equity basis, with an IRR of 19.9%. The weighted average cash operating cost over the life of the mine is US 88.5 cents per pound placing it into the lower half of world copper production costs.

The after-tax NPV at 8% of the Project is US$326.3 million, with an IRR of 15.0%. Chariot’s 70% share of the NPV of Mina Justa is Cdn$280.7 million. Chariot has estimated that its interest would be valued at Cdn 86 cents per fully diluted Chariot share.

During the 11.5 year operating life of the mine, vat leaching will produce approximately 1.06 billion pounds of copper in cathodes (481,596 tonnes) and the concentrator will produce approximately 1.64 million tonnes of concentrates containing 1.32 billion pounds of payable copper (598,801 tonnes), 16.0 million ounces of payable silver plus a minor amount of payable gold. Average annual production is 244.5 million pounds of copper per year (111,000 tonnes).

The total development cost of the facilities is US$743.5 million, of which US$ 576 million is the initial start-up capital. Sustaining and deferred capital and closure costs amount to $32.8 million and $15.6 million respectively, resulting in a cash break-even cost of US$1.04 per pound, suggesting that Mina Justa can operate in almost any copper environment.

Ulli Rath, President and CEO of Chariot said: “Mina Justa is a robust project which has the potential to create significant value for shareholders". Mr. Rath went on to say: “The anticipated duration of the Project is 18 years, including 33 months for engineering, permitting and construction, 11.5 years of operations, plus 3.5 years to complete closure and rehabilitation and post-closure monitoring of the site.”
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