El Salvador president proposes bill to overturn metals mining ban
In 2017, El Salvador became the first country in the world to ban forms of metals mining.
Canadian precious metals royalty and streaming company Gold Royalty (NYSEAMERICAN: GROY) is investing $31 million to finance Aura Minerals’ (TSX: ORA) Borborema gold project in Rio Grande do Norte state, Northeast of Brazil.
As part of the deal, Gold Royalty will acquire a 2% net smelter return (NSR) royalty on Borborema for a cash consideration of $21 million. It will also provide additional financing as a lender under a royalty-convertible gold-linked loan valued at $10 million.
The Vancouver-based firm said it had already received commitments from Queen’s Road Capital Investment and Taurus Mining Royalty Fund to complete a private placement of $40 million of unsecured convertible debentures.
Together with the $100 million term loan previously entered into with Banco Santander Brazil and $14 million raised through gold collars with several financial institutions, Aura Minerals has now secured over $145 million to build the Borborema gold mine, which has an estimated total construction capex of $188 million.
The project consists of three mining concessions covering a total area of 29 km² plus the title to the main area of the prospect.
The mineral exploration rights, covering a total of 410 km², extend along the Borborema mining concessions trend and remain prospective to additional resources, Aura Minerals said.
A definitive feasibility study (DFS) was completed in December 2019 for the first stage of the project development and updated in July 2020.
Aura is currently updating the DFS considering the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum standards.
The company has a growing presence in Brazil. In September, it kicked off commercial production at the Almas gold mine, the first ever green field project developed by the miner.
Aura also owns and operates the EPP gold mine in Brazil, the Aranzazu copper-gold-silver mine in Mexico and the San Andres gold mine in Honduras.
