Where the smelter charge sits today
sell winsplant winsTC-equivalent, $ per dry tonne of concentrate
Adjust the case
Six inputs drive most of the answer. Everything else sits under more assumptions.
More assumptions
How the answer is built
Process model, economics, carbon and risk, all from the same inputs.
Chalcopyrite holds most of the world's copper, and it resists leaching.
Vanadium(II) reduces it to chalcocite at room temperature. A ferric leach then dissolves the copper, and SX-EW plates cathode. An electrolyzer recharges the vanadium, so electricity, not heat, drives the process.
Show mass, charge and electrical balance
Element balance t/yr, closure = out ÷ in
Electrical duty I = ṁ·n·F / (M·CE)
Why the plant gains or loses against selling $M per year, before CAPEX
Where the running cost goes
CAPEX
Cumulative cash vs selling concentrate $M, after tax
Show both income statements
Selling concentrate $M per year
Building the plant $M per year
t CO₂e per t copper, by power source dashed line is the smelter route
Concentrate-to-cathode step only. Grid factors are approximate (Ember/IEA 2024). The smelter-route figure is an approximate smelting-and-refining share of published cathode footprints; verify before quoting.
Where the plant pays NPV by smelter charge (x) and plant size (y)
What moves NPV most each input ±20%
NPV range, 2,000 runs Monte Carlo
Independent study. Built from published academic research on vanadium(II) reductive leaching [1-3] and public press [4-6]. It is not any company's model and uses no company data. The commercial flowsheet, costs and pilot data are not public. Values marked A are assumptions to replace with pilot and vendor data.
Engine checked against an independent Python calculation (validate.py). Mass and charge balances close within 0.1%. Prices are late-July 2026 [11].