Rio2 Ltd and Atacama Pacific Gold Corp report that the business combination of the two has now been completed by way of a court approved plan of arrangement through which the companies amalgamated as a single entity. The combined company will continue to operate under the name Rio2 Ltd and will be managed by Rio2’s existing executive team led by Alex Black as President and CEO.
Black stated, “Our management team is now focused on undertaking the next phase of development of the Cerro Maricunga gold project which is located in Chile, a well established mining jurisdiction. With over 5.25 Moz of Measured and Indicated Resources and 3.74 Moz of Proven and Probable Reserves, Cerro Maricunga is one of the largest undeveloped gold oxide projects in the Americas. Since completing due diligence and announcing the Arrangement, the Rio2 team has been analyzing the 2014 PFS of Cerro Maricunga with a view to optimizing key project components and reducing capex. We see a number of similarities between Cerro Maricunga and La Arena gold mine located in Peru, that the Rio2 management team was responsible for building and operating between 2009 to 2015. As was the case with La Arena, we believe we can build a starter project at Cerro Maricunga focused on higher‐grade, near surface mineralization that will help minimize startup capex and expand production using cashflow. In the comining weeks, we will publicly announce our development plan for the next 12 months which will include a DFS for the project in H2 2019.”
The Cerro Maricunga deposit hosts a pit constrained gold Proven and Probable Reserve of 3.74 Moz (294.4 Mt grading 0.40 g/t Au) at a 0.15 g/t Au cutoff grade. In October 2014, Atacama Pacific reported the results of a PFS that envisions a large open pit operation mining 80,000 t/d with a conventional heap leach processing facility recovering 2.96 Moz of gold over a 13 year mine life with cash costs of $683/oz.
The property is located 140 km by road northeast of Copiapó, Chile on the northern end of the Maricunga Mineral Belt 20 km south of Kinross Gold’s La Copia silver-gold mine. Since 2010, Atacama Pacific has completed more than 100,000 m of drilling on the property outlining this worldclass oxide gold deposit, one of the largest undeveloped oxide gold deposits in the world.
“This is a transformational transaction for Rio2 as it provides a solid foundation to execute our corporate strategy. While we develop the Cerro Maricunga project, we will continue to pursue strategic opportunities to diversify and complement our portfolio with assets at different development stages as we build a multi‐asset, multi‐jurisdiction precious metals company focused on the Americas.”, said Jose Luis Martinez, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer.
