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Brazil has quietly become one of the more active places in the world for gold and copper exploration, and every so often a smaller company advances a project far enough to show investors what it might actually be worth. That is the situation now facing a company working in the western part of Mato Grosso state, where a gold, copper, and silver deposit has moved from years of drilling and studies into a detailed construction ready plan.
The project, called Cabaçal, sits in a mineral belt about 320 kilometers from Cuiabá, the state capital, and it is being developed by Meridian Mining plc (OTCQX: MRRDF, TSX: MNO), a mineral exploration and development company. Cabaçal is an open pit deposit that produces a clean copper concentrate carrying gold and silver credits, the kind of ore that smelters in Japan, South Korea, and Europe have shown strong interest in buying. Under the mine plan released this month, Cabaçal is expected to produce 983,537 ounces of gold, 180,634 tonnes of copper, and 1,779,720 ounces of silver over a 13.9 year mine life, with mining concentrated in the first ten years and processing continuing afterward from stockpiled ore. The site already has sealed road access from Cuiabá, and the surrounding region is supplied by existing power infrastructure, which has helped keep the project’s footprint and logistics relatively simple compared with more remote South American deposits.
Work on Cabaçal has advanced steadily since 2021, moving through resource estimates, a preliminary economic assessment, and a 2025 pre-feasibility study before reaching this stage. Along the way, Meridian secured a preliminary environmental license from Mato Grosso’s state authorities and, more recently, lodged an application for the installation license needed to begin construction.
Meridian has now released the results of a Definitive Feasibility Study for Cabaçal, and the numbers were notably stronger than the earlier pre feasibility work. The study puts the project’s after tax net present value, using a 5% discount rate, at $2.092 billion, with an internal rate of return of 108% and a payback period of just 0.9 years under the base case. Initial capital costs came in at $322 million, producing a net present value to capital ratio of 6.5 times, a figure the company’s chief executive, Gilbert Clark, pointed to directly when describing the results as proof the mine can be financed and built. Using current spot metal prices rather than the study’s base case assumptions, the economics improve further, with the net present value rising to $2.902 billion and the internal rate of return reaching roughly 135%.
What makes these figures worth noting is the gap between the project’s estimated value and the size of the company behind it. Meridian’s market capitalization sits at roughly $730 million, meaning the study’s headline valuation is almost three times the company’s current worth on the stock market, a mismatch that often draws attention from investors looking for names the broader market has not yet fully absorbed. Meridian says it has already engaged with about 30 lending groups on project financing and has secured an installation license for the power line needed to supply the mine, while long lead equipment orders and early civil works are already underway. Those are the kinds of practical steps that typically separate a promising study from a project that actually gets built, and they suggest Cabaçal’s path toward a construction decision is further along than the study alone might indicate.
