Solaris Resources presentation. I will take the forward-looking and cautionary statements as being read. Just looking at the Solaris Resources investment case and really focusing on Warintza as the core asset, understanding that we do have four additional assets within the portfolio. The pre-feasibility does highlight the tier 1 status of this global and major scale asset. It is multi-generational. It delivers significant first quartile cash costs, driving significant free cash flow back to shareholders over a 55-year-plus life of mine. It has district-level scale. We own over 260 square kilometers within our own rights, and then we have option properties beyond that with ENAMI, the state-owned entity. The significance of exploration is profound.
We also have no attachments to a major in the equity stack, which is something very unique in terms of the world of copper today and large porphyry mining and opportunities, and that provides us with strategic alternatives as we look forward. Operationally, it is a very simple deposit. It is a conventional open-pit mine with conventional processing, producing a very high-quality copper and gold concentrate, as well as a molybdenum concentrate. We have the social license to operate, and Ecuador is a very favorable mining geography today with very good precedents in country. We have a very early-stage and unique exploration portfolio beyond what we have in Ecuador, and that provides significant upside beyond what we do show in Ecuador today.
We have a very experienced team, and also we are very well-funded to take us all the way through to an FID at the back end of 2027 through the $200 million Royal Gold funding that was delivered in May of 2025 and was completed at a very competitive cost of capital and recognizing the high-quality attributes of this global scale asset. Just looking at the value drivers and step change to a re-rating in terms of our business and understanding the four quartiles of our business. We have the Warintza de-risking, and we are driving this globally significant asset forward, and we hope to be fully permitted in the first half of 2027. The feasibility study is ongoing and the final investment decision at the back end of 2027. We have a district-level consolidation strategy.
Ultimately, as I mentioned, the significance of our land package beyond that, the option packages, is something that we are really focused on and delivering. We do have the social license in those areas, and field work continues, and we will continue to deliver value beyond what we do have in Warintza. That 5.8 billion tonnes of opportunity will potentially bulk out beyond that. The Latin American exploration portfolio, it is a high-quality portfolio. We have two assets in Peru, one a polymetallic asset, one large porphyry asset. We have an asset, La Verde, a joint venture with Teck Resources in Mexico and another asset in Chile. We are going to allocate capital to these assets on the peripheral of the portfolio. Certainly, we do not have any value attributes in our capital stack today for these, and that remains a big upside in the future.
We all recognize the resilient copper market that we are dealing with today and the shortage of near-term copper tonnes, and this project certainly does deliver that. We delivered the pre-feasibility in November of last year. Just want to take you through that and understanding that the pre-feasibility was permitted in two different stages, ultimately. Phase I was for 22 years life of mine, and that was really restricted by the tailings capacity of 1.3 billion tonnes. We talked to a resource base of 5.8 billion tonnes, so this mine will continue for 55 years plus, not the 20-year life you see on-site here. The production scale of 242,000 tonnes of copper equivalent is globally significant.
We have a reserve life of over 20 years, a strip ratio of 0.53:1 over the life of the mine, driving a significant first class strip ratio and strip adjusted grade, and drives that all-in sustaining cash cost down to $1.07 over the life of the mine, generating significant free cash generation. The capital intensity of $15,400, I will talk to that in a few slides, but very, very credible in terms of the metric, and that is really driven by the fact that we have very minimal pre-stripping CapEx that goes into this.
The ore body sits very high to surface. NPV of $4.6 billion and 26% on the IRR, understanding that this was done at $4.50 copper and $2,500 gold, ultimately. So when you talk to it at spot prices, you are talking to $10 billion and a 41% return on investment. Something profound and a 2.6-year payback, ultimately.
As I said, we will produce a very high-quality concentrate, copper, gold concentrate, as well as a moly concentrate, highly marketable, no deleterious elements in that. The pre-feasibility was prepared in conjunction with Ausenco, Knight Piésold, and AMC Consultants, so very credible providers of studies. Significance of the resource base is very important. We have 22 years of life of operation under the reserves, significant potential to bulk out well beyond that, 25- 30 years beyond that. The reserves represent less than a third of the Warintza resource endowment. We talked to 5.2 million tonnes of copper equivalent in reserves and over 16 million tonnes of copper within the resources. Something very profound in terms of the world of copper.
If you looked at the right-hand side of the chart, we sit really firmly in the top tier of future producers from a global scale perspective, and only 10 of the top 30 projects or greenfield projects of scale have no attachments to a major. Very important as well as we look towards this project. Low capital intensity, as I said, really driven by the fact that we have very little pre-stripping capital, and we are located in a very favorable geography too, in terms of that. So when you compare it to the benchmark peers of about $21,000 per tonne, it benchmarks very favorably and against Glencore and BHP when they recently published their greenfield and brownfield expansion projects very favorably. We are very close to existing infrastructure, good access to ports, highways, and energy, low elevation of 1,200 m above sea level.
That is also a very important factor as we look towards the future build of this mine. It is a simple mine. It is a simple open-pit mine with conventional processing, as I mentioned before. Strip ratio is a very important understanding when you benchmark large porphyries against one another. The median average in terms of strip ratio profiling in big porphyries is about 2.5: 1. We have a strip ratio profile of 0.5: 1, ultimately. What does head grade and strip ratio mean? Ultimately, the combination drives a strip adjusted grade. As you will see on the right-hand side of this chart, it really does sit within the top tier of future producers from a strip-adjusted grade perspective. That drives that all-in sustaining cash cost down to $1.07.
It is very important to benchmark against that strip ratio when you look at these porphyry ore bodies, these large porphyries of the future. Also, I think one thing I will say, optimization for mine planning in terms of this long-life strip ratio profile provides significant flexibility as we work through the mine in the future. Technically, it is a very simple design. As you will see from here, it is environmentally encapsulated, footprint encapsulated by the north, the west, and the south ridge lines. It is a very small and compact design, and water flows from the southwest to the northeast. You will see the water run-off, you will see the principal access to the port in the north, and those ridge lines are well-defined by the red lines.
Very technically simple and very compact design, and we worked with highly credible consultants in designing this, and I think that is very important to the future of this mine. The social license to operate in Ecuador is also very important, and I think that has been a focus area of ourselves over a long period of time. We have significant partnerships with our indigenous organizations and within the area of influence. We recently put out a press release on that. The free, prior, and informed consultation process has begun with the government, and they are leading that process forward and going very well. We have multiple impacts and benefits agreements that are completed with our host communities.
Our community life plans obviously were presented the other day, which incorporates mining as a key resource to future economic development of those communities, and that is really indicative of their support for this project. Ecuador is an export-driven economy with a very strong infrastructure within and significant deep-sea ports, as well across the Western Atlantic. The left, right, central government has all been very supportive of mining. It is the third-largest pillar of the economy today. Something that the current government is really focused on and certainly something that our project, being the largest in-country, is certainly very focused on delivering that project and delivering the future benefits of that project back to the country. It is a USD-denominated currency, so something also very important and very different to many of the Latin American region, ultimately, and very stable fiscal regime.
As I mentioned, mining is a key growth pillar, and we received the technical approval of the EIA in April of this year. Again, a very key milestone to delivering this project. From a project timeline perspective, in 2025, we delivered the $200 million of financing package, as I mentioned. It gets us all the way runway through to ultimately getting all the permits in hand, ultimately, and the FID of the project. As I mentioned, we will have the exploitation agreements during the first half of 2027. Early works will begin in the first half of 2027, and we will have the project fully permitted by such stage. The feasibility study in conjunction with Ausenco and Knight Piésold AMC continues, and that will be delivered again in the first half, and then the construction period back half of 2027 for a period of approximately three years.
A very exciting period of time, a very interesting period of time to be invested in the company and some near-term catalysts. The district-level potential is something very profound. We have a significant cluster. You can see the solid lines here demarcate the land ownership that we own in-country. It is a significant cluster. Those three dots represent the mineral resource estimate of the 5.8 billion tonnes that we do own today. We do have regional exploration opportunities here that are profound. The dotted lines represent the Solaris option properties, and those bulk out the land package significantly. We put out a press release earlier this year on the work that has been done on the southeastern portion of those tenements. It is called the Tinki concessions.
Those Tinki concessions represented a large porphyry system, potassic alterations that are very, very interesting and certainly, we are putting our minds together and hopefully getting our drill permits and permits in there to drill and deliver value for shareholders near term. When you look at the cluster and you look at also San Carlos Panantza, that is demarcated by the yellow lines on the left-hand side. That opportunity today, with the inclusion of that, we talk to an opportunity of 10 billion tonnes plus. It is globally significant. It is very, very interesting, and I do not think there are many opportunities in regional, multigenerational projects like this across the globe. It is something very unique in terms of the world of copper.
Looking at the highly prospective copper and polymetallic projects that we do own, apart from Warintza, and I think it is very important for people to understand that these projects are David Lowell projects and certainly something very interesting. Paco Orco, as I mentioned before, is a polymetallic. It is very close to Coppernico Metals Inc. Coppernico Metals Inc. is a listed business and certainly, we have the advanced fieldwork on that. We do have the social license to advance that, and during early 2027, the first quarter of 2027, we will be putting some drill rigs in there. La Verde is the 60/40 joint venture that we have with Teck Resources in Mexico. We continue to advance the PEA there. We are doing a refresh of that study and certainly is a very interesting mine.
It's a 19-year life of mine, and we'll continue to allocate some capital there to develop the studies and move that forward as well. Capricho is a large-scale copper porphyry opportunity, very close to Constancia, Hudbay, MMG's Las Bambas. Something very interesting, the social license has been granted and we will continue to allocate capital there, and the first quarter of 2027, we will commence drilling. Peru is a very big area for ourselves in terms of opportunity, and we will allocate capital and continue to deliver value there for shareholders. Just looking at the Solaris investment case again and recapping, I think we can all recognize that the pre-feasibility study here really did illustrate Warintza's Tier 1 status. This is a global-scale asset. It's something very unique in the world of copper, and we're moving that forward with good pace. Regional exploration opportunities are profound, as I mentioned.
We don't have any attachments to a major in the equity stack, and that provides us with great optionality as we look forward to the financing of this project and to various partnership opportunities that we may have. Operationally, very simple in terms of its design, as I mentioned. Social license is well advanced and we are on the ultimately final path with the government in the free, prior and informed consultation process. We have a very near-term Latin American exploration portfolio which sits aside from Ecuador itself. What we do there in the near term is we'll allocate capital whilst that portfolio sits within Solaris, and we have the potential to do something with that later on, ultimately. We'll develop those projects and see how that progresses.
We have a very experienced team, and ultimately, we are fully funded all the way through to delivering the feasibility study at the back end of next year. I think that wraps that up. I think it was a good summary and happy to take any questions.
Great. Thank you. In the interest of time, maybe one quick one. What do you think investors are missing at this point? You have some exciting studies potentially coming out in the first half of next year. Is there anything that you'd highlight that maybe people are misinterpreting or not getting right in the story?
Yeah, look, I think the near-term attribute of this company is very real. Getting to a fully permitted project in the middle of next year, FID the back end, is something very achievable for ourselves and being the largest development player in country, there's a firm focus on us from a government perspective. Certainly, from our perspective, we continue to deliver that. I think where we trade today, ultimately, there's a lot of upside. These catalysts as I talk to in terms of social, in terms of permits, and in terms of studies, represent tremendous value. On the periphery, the exploration opportunities, plus the non-core portfolio renders great upside. I think the investor base has tracked the story for a long time, but it's becoming more real now. Ecuador as a jurisdiction, too, has come a long way from a mining perspective. There's great precedents in country.
Just look at Lundin Gold, look at Mirador and how successfully they've operated. Certainly, the story is cementing, and this has got to be one of the most exciting copper development stories out there.
Great. Thank you very much.
Thanks very much, Richard. Thanks. Thank you very much.