Doug Ramshaw, President of Minera Alamos (TSX.V:MAI – OTCQX:MAIFF), joins us for a comprehensive operations and exploration update at the Santana Mine, and the big news announced yesterday on the construction financing package for the Cerro De Oro gold development project in Zacatecas, Mexico.
We start off with the announcement that the Company has signed a termsheet for a US$15 million Loan Facility and US$10 million Royalty that is expected to close on or around July 14th, upon signing of definitive documentation as well as board and regulatory approvals. This is an important milestone for the company and concludes discussions with lenders regarding a funding package tailored for the planned construction of the Cerro de Oro gold mine that is currently anticipated to begin next year.
The company is still advancing permitting, engineering, metallurgical work, geological, and other geotechnical work to continue to de-risk the Cerro de Oro Gold Project as it moves down the pathway into production as the Company’s second operating gold mine. Initial projections are for this mine to produce 60,000 ounces annually, but Doug also highlights the upside potential through exploration and resource expansion, as well as the leach pad capacity, where the goal is to see if the potential is there to eventually push production to upwards of 90,000 – 100,000 ounces per annum.
Next we pivoted over to the Q1 operations and financial results from the operating Santana Mine. We reviewed the challenging 2nd half of 2022 due to drought conditions and water concerns, but highlighted that for 2023 there is the ongoing expansion of leach pads and focused exploration to expand resources at Santana and show the bluesky potential at this Project. The company also decided to reduce payables and invest some capex into Cerro de Oro, which explained the reduction in cash on the books, and anticipates better performance from the mine for the balance of this year.
We wrap up looking further afield to continuing to build out a strategy of production growth through more mines coming online, and discussed the permitted Fortuna project waiting in the wings, and the companies ongoing due diligence of other projects that could be value accretive acquisitions in the pipeline of future development projects.
Please email us with any follow up questions for Doug regarding Minera Alamos. Our email addresses are Fleck@kereport.com and Shad@kereport.com.
- In full disclosure, Shad is a shareholder of Minera Alamos
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