Iron Concentrator Design for the Santo Domingo Project - SME Annual Meeting 2025

It is commonly known in the industry that one of the key challenges for a greenfield project, such as Capstone Copper’s Santo Domingo project, is the obtention of samples for metallurgical testing and subsequent plant design. To face this challenge, the Santo Domingo project completed 169,692 meters of drilling. The material collected has been used for a variety of analysis including the economic recovery of iron, which contributes significant economic value to the Santo Domingo business case. Composite and variability samples, covering the main geological units considered in the life of mine (LOM) plan, were selected for bench and pilot scale testwork. Davis Tube Tests, small scale Low Intensity Magnetic Separation (LIMS) tests and a pilot utilizing a 48 in (1.2 m), diameter magnetic separation drum were completed. The testwork demonstrated that the Santo Domingo ore could achieve iron concentrate grades of 65% Fe - suitable for blast furnace, and 67% Fe - suitable for Direct Reduction, primarily by concentration of magnetite. The outcomes of this work have informed the iron concentrator plant design and scale up.