Owner of one of the world's premier advanced stage copper projects, Chariot Resources Ltd (TSX: CHD) is fast reaching the production stage in its Mina Justa Project at Marcona Copper in Peru.

The project manned by skilled engineers and workers benefits from its proximity to infrastructure such as roads, power, water and several ports. After more than 220,000 m of test drilling, its deposits are now estimated to total 6.8 billion pounds of copper in the ground. In its feasibility study released in April, Chariot Resources announced that with the price of copper at $2 a pound and at a discount rate of 8 percent, Mina Justa had a pre-tax net present value (NPV) of $616.2 million with an internal rate of return (IRR) of 19.9 percent.

The weighted average cash operating cost over the life of the mine is estimated at $0.885 cents a pound, placing it in the lower half of world copper production costs. Also, the project's after-tax NPV, at 8 percent of the project, is $326.3 million, with an IRR of 15 percent.