We've officially got a new major deposit, folks. Turns out Filelo del Soul, which was acquired by a joint venture between Londinine Mining and BHP Group in January for $4. 5 billion, may have been cheap.
The project held in an entity referred to as a Vakuda Corp, posttransaction, has been effectively combined with the Joseé Maria project. Previously wholly owned by Londin, Joseé Maria is found adjacent to Filelo del Soul and was vended into the 50-50 joint venture at the same time as Felo, establishing a dominant name within the Vuna district. And now that combined entity has an initial resource estimate that quite frankly is difficult to comprehend.
Let's dive in. London Mining together with joint venture partner BHP Group has established an initial resource estimate for Vakuna Corp. The estimate serves as the first major update postacquisition for the venture and also establishes an initial resource for the Filo deloul sulfide deposit while updating the oxide portion of the estimate as well as the estimate for the Joseé Maria deposit.
Collectively, the resource is referred to as the Vuna mineral resource. And although Joseé Maria is technically about 10 km from Felo, the entire thing is being treated as one big project that will be developed concurrently. So, how's it shake out in terms of size?
Well, Vakuna in simple terms has one of the largest copper, gold, and silver resources globally. As it turns out, the resource is said to be within the top 10 for mineral resources of the largest producing copper mines globally based on rankings from S&P Global, which places Vakuna as the sixth largest such resource. Vakuna ranks as the largest green field copper discovery in the last three decades, while at the same time containing one of the largest gold and silver resources in the world.
The gold resource here is larger than Malaric and Detour Lake and sits third globally in terms of operating mines. The silver resource here is second globally relative to the world's largest silver mines. Okay.
Okay, that's enough beating around the bush. Let's get to the numbers. On a combined basis, the Vakuna district is estimated to contain 3.
6 billion tons at 0. 35% copper, 0. 27 g per ton gold, and 5.
6 6 g per ton silver within the measured and indicated categories. In terms of contained metal, that equates to 12. 8 million tons of copper, 32.
2 million ounces of gold, and 659 million ounces of silver. On top of that, the inferred resource is a further 7. 9 billion tons at 0.
32% copper, 0. 19 g per ton of gold, and 3. 2 2 g per ton of silver, which translates to contain metal of 25.
1 million tons of copper, 48. 7 million ounces of gold, and 808 million ounces of silver. The resources spread across a number of different categories, including the Floels sulfides, the Floels copper oxides, the Floels gold oxide, the Floels silver oxide, and Joseé Maria.
Collectively, this update is said to have grown contained copper within the oxide resource by 43% within the measured and indicated category at Felo. Well, contained copper at Joseé Maria grew by 38%. And yet, the Filo del Soul sulfide deposit remains open at depth and along strike to both the north and the south.
Drlling along the edges of the conceptual pit has hit mineralization, but there simply hasn't been enough drill density. So that mineralization has been categorized as a waste for now but can be converted to ore later with further exploration and well it's considered against the grain to combine all resource categories because of the different risk assumptions and such. We're going to do it anyways.
Combined it equates to 38 million tons of copper, 80. 9 million ounces of gold and 1. 5 billion ounces of silver.
Mindn numbing figures. And that's before considering what a potential mine could look like here in terms of annual production. Now, I suspect I know what you're thinking, but Steve, that's lowgrade ore.
And yeah, it's certainly lower than some other resources. There's certainly other projects out there with scale that are higher grade, but there's also high-grade cores involved here that are perfectly feasible. At Filo del Soul, there's a high-grade core that is 606 million tons in size on a measured and indicated basis with copper equivalent grades of 1.
14%. Contained metal here amounts to 4 1. 5 million tons of copper, 9.
6 million ounces of gold, and 259 million ounces of silver. Like I said, perfectly feasible, at least at this stage. And to add to that, Felo also has a lower capital intensity heap leech oxide cap consisting of 434 million tons of measured and indicated containing 1.
5 million tons of 0. 34% copper, 3. 9 million ounces of 0.
28 g per ton gold and 35 million ounces of 2. 5 g per ton silver. There's also a high-grade portion to this lower capital intensity cap consisting of 181 million tons of measured and indicated at 1.
05% 05% copper equivalent containing 911,000 tons of copper, 2. 3 million ounces of gold, and 23 million ounces of silver. Over at Joseé Maria, the high-grade core consists of 196 million tons of measured and indicated at 0.
73% copper equivalent, which contains 978,000 tons of copper, 2. 4 million ounces of gold, and 11 million ounces of silver. Stepping back a bit, these deposits actually rank just fine among major open pit copper mines.
However, Filo del Soul's high-grade core ranks fourth among major deposits. While the entire thing, not just the high-grade, ranks sixth. Joseé Maria's high-grade, meanwhile, ranks eighth.
So, it's basically a non-issue. And even if it was, there are a number of development options here. All right, so let's wrap it up.
Vuna here is without a doubt a massive project. Market commentators are already putting in the leg work to try and identify where costs will fall in terms of further development with some estimates putting it in the area of 10 to 12 billion. But with this much resource in the ground, that's pocket change for a long life asset that will continue to pay out for literal decades.
More near-term, Lundine has indicated that they plan to establish an integrated technical report that will outline a combined project. That report is due in the first quarter of 2026, which for a project of this size is actually impressive. All right, everybody.
