Mining News Pro - During the first 25 years of mining, Cascabel is expected to have an average annual production of 207,000 tonnes of copper, 438,000 ounces of gold and 1.4 million ounces of silver.
According to Mining News Pro -
According to Mining News Pro - Ecuador-focused SolGold (LON, TSX:
SOLG) said on Thursday its chief executive and managing director, Darryl
Cuzzubbo, had left the company effective immediately, after less than a
year in the top job.
The former BHP executive’s departure comes
just two days after the company unveiled a $50 million royalty financing
deal to advance its giant Cascabel copper-gold project in Ecuador.
Cuzzubbo
took the reins last December after SolGold’s lengthy search to replace
co-founder Nick Mather, who was handed a strong rebuke at the company’s
annual meeting with nearly half (44.7%) of shareholders voting against
his reappointment.
SolGold, backed by BHP (ASX: BHP) and Newcrest
(ASX: NCM), had sparred with the two large shareholders over funding
for its flagship project under Mather’s guidance.
The funding deal announced on Monday has reportedly reignited criticism from shareholders, including the two Australian miners.
Osisko
agreed to provide the $50 million in funding in return for 0.6% net
smelter return royalty. The move gives Cornerstone, which has a 15%
stake in Cascabel, an increased interest in SolGold to 20%, diluting BHP
and Newcrest holdings to slightly over 10%.
Newcrest Mining,
which has a 13.5% stake in SolGold labelled the miner’s royalty funding
deal as “expensive” and “negative”, The Australian reported.
BHP
chief executive Mike Henry told the same newspaper after the group’s
general meeting in Perth on Thursday that SolGold had come up with a
“disappointing high-cost” finance option. BHP has a 13.6% interest in
SolGold.
SolGold has also said it holding talks with potential
partners in Cascabel as part of a strategic business review kicked off
after acquiring in October Canada’s Cornerstone Capital Resources
(TSX-V: CGP) to secure a 100% ownership of Cascabel.
The company
noted it had appointed non-executive director Scott Caldwell, who has
held a number of senior executive roles, as interim CEO until a
permanent replacement has been found.
Among largest copper mines
The
Cascabel project, located in the Imbabura province of northwest
Ecuador, is one of the most ambitious mining projects in a country that
is keen to develop mineral resources to spur its sluggish economy.
According
to the pre-feasibility study published in April, annual production will
average 132,000 tonnes of copper, 358,000 ounces of gold and 1 million
ounces of silver during Cascabel’s 55-year life-of-mine.
This means the asset has the potential to become one of the 20 largest copper-gold mines in South America.
Alpala,
the largest deposit found at Cascabel so far, has measured and
indicated resources of 2.7 billion tonnes grading 0.53%
copper-equivalent (0.37% copper, 0.25 grams gold per tonne, and 1.08
parts per million silver) for 9.9 million tonnes of contained copper,
21.7 million oz. gold and 92.2 million oz. of silver.
During
the first 25 years of mining, Cascabel is expected to have an average
annual production of 207,000 tonnes of copper, 438,000 ounces of gold
and 1.4 million ounces of silver.
Over the last two years,
Ecuador has attracted a flurry of interest from big miners looking to
increase their exposure to copper. The highly conductive metal is in
demand for use in renewable energy and electric vehicles, but big, new
deposits are rare.
It’s estimated that the global copper
industry needs to spend more than $100 billion to build mines able to
close what could be an annual supply deficit of 4.7 million tonnes by
2030.