Minera Alamos – Cerro de Oro Gold Project Construction Financing Package Announced And Q1 Financial Results From The Santana Mine
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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Click here to visit the Minera Alamos website and read over the recent news.
DT – It depends on the nature of the spinout, but there were plenty of times in years past where I had the OTC version and still got the spinout shares of the news company. Sometimes the spinout shares were converted over to the accompanying OTC version of the new company, and other times I got the actual Canadian or Australian shares of the new company, which had to be traded by paying for a foreign stock sale and the currency exchange factor. Not sure how that may workout for folks on this HighGold spinout, but I’d assume holders of the OTC would also get shares in the new spinco.
BULLSEYE Ex, you always deliver and over deliver! DT
Gracias amigo!
Problems, excuses…It’s not looking good for MAI, located in ole Mexico.
That is a bizarre and totally off-base takeaway to get from a company that just announced their quite modest construction financing package on a 2nd mine that will more than double production once built. That is a huge win for the company in ole Mexico. Did you even listen to the interview?
In the interview above, the president just discussed the challenges they overcame in 2022 related to water due to drought, but that they are working to improve the currently producing Santana mine with leach pad expansion, and more drilling to demonstrate the further upside at the project. Santana is already throwing off solid revenues that will only improve from here, which is looking good.
If anything, they’ll be a transformed growth-oriented gold producer with large exploration upside over the next 2 years. That looks pretty dang good to me personally, which is precisely why I’ve been using the recent sector weakness to accumulate more MAI. Different strokes for different folks I guess.
They are no Calibre(CXB)
That’s an apples and oranges comparison.
Those 2 companies are at totally different points in their respective journeys, with different production profiles. As a relatively new and smaller gold producer at this point, Minera Alamos is actually set to grow much more on a percentage basis with regards to production 2+ years out when Cerro de Oro is contributing, and as Santa continues to expand production. In contrast, Calibre is already a solid mid-tier, with a much larger production profile (closer to 250,000-275,000 ounces projected for this year) growing meaningfully through increasing overall grade. Both companies have solid growth plans, but much different nuanced approaches to building future value.
MAI will never make it to CXB status, would be my thinking
Not anytime in the next 2-3 years, but in prior discussions, Doug mentioned a roadmap to production growth that could get them up somewhere close.
The team at Minera Alamos believes Santana could eventually be producing 40,000-50,000 ounces annually, and if Cerro de Oro can start around 60,000 ounces annually, and then grow to 90,000-100,000 ounces with more expansion and exploration, then that would be about 140,000 +/- ounces per year.
After that it would involve continuing to explore and expand their permitted Fortuna as potential 3rd mine, or more likely, them acquiring another project similar to Cerro de Oro (as Doug mentioned towards the end of the interview). Or both, develop Fortuna and acquire another development project through an acquisition.
So if they could find another mine that could produce 100,000+ ounces per annum, or another 2 smaller mines that could produce 50K to 60K ounces annually to bolt on, then they’d be up in the 240,000 – 260,000 production range. I could see that happening in a 4-5 year window of time. At that point, it’s likely they’d have a takeover target on their chest, and could get nabbed by a larger company.
Regardless, they have a lot of production and resource growth on tap over the next few years, and I’m here for it.
“Hola” Terry, I just thought I would send you a greeting in Spanish, don’t get upset! LOL! DT
Ha! It doesn’t sound like Terry is very enthusiastic about ole’ Mexico, so you may have been better off with an Australian greeting like “Good day mate!” 🙂
Ex, my favorite story in The National Enquirer about Australia is blame it on the Dingos, “The Dingo Ate My Baby! That one always makes me laugh, or when The Aussie Gold Hunters find a grain of Gold they say. “It’s a real Ripper”! DT
I love the Aussies and they’ve got a lot of great figures of speech that make me smile.
DT, got me thinking about lunch already..hamburguesa con queso y onion gringos y cervesa por favor
Yep, nothing says Mexican food like a cheeseburger. Haha!
High Gold Mining is spinning off two of its other properties into a new company listed on the TSX-V called “Onyx” Gold. If you bought shares on the OTC in HighGold Mining, would that investor be eligible for The Onyx shares because the OTC listed shares of HighGold Mining are derivatives of the value of HighGold Mining, you don’t actually hold shares of HighGold. DT