Wheaton closes precious metals stream with Caldas on Marmato Project

Caldas Gold (TSX-V: CGC) announced that it has entered into a definitive Precious Metals Purchase Agreement with Wheaton Precious Metals over the Marmato Project in Colombia.

Wheaton will purchase 6.5% of the gold production and 100% of the silver production from the project until 190,000 ounces of gold and 2.15 million ounces of silver have been delivered, after which the stream drops to 3.25% of the gold production and 50% of the silver production for the life of mine.

Under the Precious Metals Stream, Wheaton will make an upfront deposit payment in cash of $110 million.

The proceeds will be used to fund the expansion of Caldas’ mining operations in the Deeps Zone, located in the Department of Caldas.

Projected production

A Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) completed in 2019 charted a path for expansion of mining operations at the Marmato Project at the existing Upper Zone and at the Deeps Zone, which sits directly below the Upper Zone vein system.

In 2019, the Upper Zone mine produced 25,750 ounces of gold.

Implementation of a mine optimization program is expected to reduce total cash costs per ounce and to increase gold production in 2020 to between 32,000 and 37,000 ounces and thereafter to a range of 35,000 to 40,000 ozs for the next 15 years, according to Caldas Gold.