Northisle Copper and Gold has unveiled a significantly enhanced preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for its North Island project, showcasing the potential for a world-class copper-gold mine in British Columbia. The updated assessment more than doubles the project's estimated value compared to the previous PEA, highlighting its robust economics and promising future.

The 2025 PEA paints a compelling picture of a staged development approach, incorporating the Northwest Expo, Red Dog, and Hushamu deposits. The base-case scenario, using a 7% discount rate, projects an impressive after-tax net present value (NPV) of C$2 billion ($1.5 billion), an after-tax internal rate of return (IRR) of 29%, and a swift payback period of just 1.9 years. Even more striking are the figures based on spot metal prices: a C$3.8 billion ($2.6 billion) NPV, a 45% IRR, and a 1.4-year payback. These dramatic improvements underscore the project's sensitivity to prevailing metal prices and its potential for substantial returns.

The proposed mine plan spans a 29-year lifespan, during which it will process a staggering 753 million tonnes of ore, yielding an average annual copper-equivalent production of 157 million lbs. The development will unfold in two phases. Initially, a 40,000 tonne-per-day processing plant will produce gold doré and gold-rich copper concentrate for the first five years, requiring an initial capital expenditure of approximately C$1.1 billion ($849 million).

This relatively modest initial investment, representing less than half of the base-case NPV, makes the project particularly attractive. The second phase involves doubling the plant capacity to 80,000 tonnes per day in year six, enabling the production of copper concentrate (rich in payable gold), additional gold doré, and a molybdenum concentrate.

Northisle's CEO, Sam Lee, expressed his enthusiasm for the project's potential, stating that the 2025 PEA confirms their belief that North Island is among the best copper and gold projects in Canada. He emphasized the project's distinct advantage, highlighting how it unlocks copper value through its significant gold endowment, differentiating it from other capital-intensive copper projects.

The substantial improvements in the current PEA compared to the 2021 assessment are noteworthy. The previous study, which only considered the Red Dog and Hushamu deposits, estimated a shorter 22-year mine life and a significantly lower NPV of C$1.1 billion. The IRR and payback period were also less favorable at 19% and 3.9 years, respectively.

The updated PEA builds on a recently released resource estimate, which outlined 906 million indicated tonnes grading 0.16% copper, 0.24 g/t gold, and 75 ppm molybdenum, containing 6.3 billion lbs of copper-equivalent. Additionally, there are 214 million inferred tonnes grading 0.12% copper, 0.22 g/t gold, and 52 ppm molybdenum, representing an additional 1.3 billion lbs of copper-equivalent.