Kristie Batten: Caravel heads into 2026 with a copper spring in its step

One of Australia’s top mining journalists, Kristie Batten, writes for Stockhead every week in her regular column keeping a watchful eye on the movers and shakers of the small cap resources scene.

Caravel Minerals (ASX:CVV) shares have burst out of the gates in January, hitting the highest level since April 2022.

It comes ahead of a big six months for the copper hopeful, with a potential strategic deal in the works and a definitive feasibility study on the Caravel copper project, 150km north of Perth.

The project has a substantial resource of 1.27 billion tonnes at 0.24% copper for 3.03 million tonnes of contained copper, as well as 60,600t of contained molybdenum, 895,100 ounces of contained gold and 46.3 million ounces of contained silver.

What it lacks in grade, it makes up for in scale with Caravel now billed as one of Australia’s largest undeveloped copper projects.

Based on a 2022 pre-feasibility study, the project has pre-production capital costs of A$1.6-1.7 billion and is set to produce around 62,000tpa of copper at all-in sustaining costs of US$2.37 per pound over a mine life of at least 25 years.

Using a US$4/lb copper price, the project has a pre-tax net present value of A$2 billion.

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