An interesting compraison of El Morro to Los Azules (in red) is as follows. In summary, Los Azules is a bigger copper play while El Morro has more a attractive gold component to it. Very similar capital costs but Los Azules has far better long term economics. With El Morro is being valued at roughly $1billion with this recent offer from the Chinese, and if you assume properties are both nearly identical in $$ opportunity, then Los Azules is worth a minimum of ~ $450 million to Minera Andes, or almost $2 a share. Somebody remind me what we're currently trading at... need I say more to justify why it is I continue to hold my shares? Such dd sheds light on why Rob would pay $1 a share to keep Hochschild's grubby fingers as far away from our pot as possible.

- initial capital investment of $2.5 billion and $356 million in sustaining capital
- Los Azules at $2.7 billion and $704 million in sustaining capital

- 14 year mine life for a total life-of-mine (LOM) capital investment of $2.9 billion
- 24 year mine life for a total life-of-mine (LOM) capital investment of $3.5 billion

- using prices of $2.80/lb of copper and $625/oz gold, rate of return of 14.7% and a net present value of $1.1 billion when discounted at 8.0% (after tax)
- using prices of $2.80/lb of copper, $750/oz gold and $12/oz silver, internal rate of return of 23% and a net present value of $3.1 billion when discounted at 8.0% (pretax)

- the mine site operating cost is estimated at $10.55/tonne of ore, or $0.76/lb copper, after gold credits
- the mine site operating cost is estimated at $7.59/tonne of ore, or $0.85/lb copper, after gold/silver credits

- annual metal production is estimated to be 172,000 tonnes of copper and 313,000 ounces of gold over the entire 14 year LOM.
- annual metal production is estimated to be 170,000 tonnes of copper, 38,000 ounces of gold and 1.26 million ounces of silver over the entire 24 year LOM.

- annual metal production is estimated to be 203,000 tonnes of copper and 302,000 ounces of gold during our first five years of production
- annual metal production is estimated to be 213,000 tonnes of copper, 41,000 (est.) ounces of gold and 1.2 million (est.) ounces of silver during our first five years of production

- payback of the capital investment for the project occurs at 4.7 years.
- payback of the capital investment for the project occurs at 6.4 years.