World Copper Ltd (TSX-V:WCU, OTCQB:WCUFF) announced that its wholly-owned Chilean subsidiary has signed a non-binding letter of intent with Desaladora Rosario SpA (DESALA) to construct a pipeline that will provide a desalinated seawater supply alternative for its flagship Escalones project in Central Chile.
The company said the partnership with DESALA is intended to contribute to reducing the negative effects of climate change that affect many communities in Chile, as well as to secure a climate-conscious, sustainable water supply for future development of the Escalones project.
It noted that DESALA develops water desalination projects using reverse osmosis technologies that allow for the production of high-quality freshwater, free of boron and other chemicals, suitable for human consumption, irrigation and mining operations. Apart from supporting Escalones' future operations, World Copper said it will allow for the possibility of sharing water capacity with nearby communities.
READ: World Copper receives environment approval to drill its Escalones project in Chile
"We are excited to be embarking together with DESALA on this journey towards sustainable water supply for Escalones,” World Copper president and CEO Nolan Peterson said in a statement. “Not only will this letter of intent be the first step in providing us with a viable source of non-continental water for Escalones it also provides us with the opportunity to strengthen our relationships with the communities around our project by affording much-needed water security. A great number of Chilean families living in the communities near Escalones are fully dependent upon water supplied by trucks drawing water from continental sources.”
World Copper said it and DESALA will work towards entering into a binding water purchase agreement in a take-or-pay format. DESALA is planning to develop a desalination plant project in the Cardenal Caro province, with a design capacity of 2,000 litres per second (Lps) with an option to double the output in the future, and a pipeline from the plant to the Escalones project.
Under the terms of a definitive agreement, World Copper said it would secure a portion of this capacity for a minimum period of 15 years to fully cover fresh and process water requirements for the Escalones project, as well as to facilitate additional capacity for the use of local communities nearby.
The pipeline will also provide water to rural communities and other recipients along the route of the pipeline. Escalones' estimated water consumption in the February 2022 preliminary economic assessment (PEA) is estimated to be no more than 100 Lps.
"We are very pleased to welcome World Copper as a principal partner for this new project and we are confident that it will create a necessary impulse for fast-tracking this desalination plant and pipeline to engineering and construction, bringing safe water supply to the citizens and businesses of the Metropolitan and O'Higgins regions of Central Chile,” DESALA corporate affairs manager Ignacio Rodriguez added.
Updating investors on progress at Escalones, World Copper said it reached an intermediate goal of 1,000 metres of core drilled in mid-April, marking an important milestone of its ongoing diamond drilling program at the project.
To date, it said it has completed four out of a total of 11 planned diamond drill holes. The first holes were drilled on the Mancha Amarilla lithocap exploration target, which extends 1 kilometre south from the limit of drilling that currently defines the copper oxide mineral resource at Escalones.
Evidence from prior sampling programmes indicates this southern half of the Escalones alteration system is also deeply oxidized and could contain significant soluble copper mineralization. Following the early success of its drilling program, the company said the large east-flanking skarn will be drilled next, as a result of an encouraging surface sampling from last year.
"Our team mobilized very quickly to capitalize on the end of the Chilean summer drilling season and I am pleased with the progress of our campaign thus far,” Peterson said. “Our team has been advancing the campaign according to schedule and, maintaining a stellar safety record at the same time. I am confident that we will deliver on the objectives outlined for this program."
Headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, World Copper is a Canadian resource company focused on the exploration and development of its copper porphyry projects: Escalones and Cristal in Chile, and Zonia in Arizona. Two of these projects have estimated resources with significant soluble copper mineralization, and there are at least two other copper porphyry targets with exciting potential to expand the resource base.
Contact the author at stephen.gunnion@proactiveinvestors.com