MEDELLIN, Colombia – Gold and silver miner Gran Colombia Gold (TSX: T.GCM, Stock Forum) on Friday launched a $75 million offering of silver notes with a 5% interest rate.
Chairman Serafino Iacono’s unsecured notes took the market by surprise. The notes effectively give buyers an ounce of silver at a price that is less than half the current $35 per ounce market price. Gran Colombia, the nation’s largest bullion producer, in the past nine months has acquired three of the country’s largest gold-silver mines.
Gran Colombia just completed a merger with Medoro Resources, which was operating EL Marmato, a rich yet troubled mine in the Middle Cauca Gold Belt of the country.
Mr. Iacono is a Venezuela-born financier with political and business connections across Europe, Canada and South America. He is a citizen of Colombia and has links with the current government leadership of the country.
“This year I produce 200,000 ounces of silver and next year 400,000,” he said. “So we have no problem covering the silver credit.” Mr. Iacono said he will take $5 million of the offering for himself. “When the certificates expire, if silver is $50 they get $50 ... or a bar of silver.”
Gran Colombia is trying to brand itself as a fast-growing producer of gold with large silver credits. Three mines, Zancudo, Frontino and Marmato, produce an average of 17 grams per tonne of silver in addition to their gold output. All told, the company has five mines in the country. Gran Colombia also owns the second largest refinery in the country, not far from Segovia, the location of the historic Frontino Mine.
The reaction was positive. “An attractive arbitrage on the silver ETF,” said Ari Sussman, a Toronto financier and CEO of Colombia’s Continental Gold Ltd. (TSX: T.CNL, Stock Forum). The notes are due 2018 and would bear interest at a rate of 5 percent per year, payable twice a year. Mr. Iacono said he was meeting the head of the central bank of Colombia this weekend “and getting a spot in the vault there for our silver; we’re storing it.” The average operating cost for silver production at Gran Colombia properties is $5 an ounce, he said. “Hey, they thought when we put this acquisition and production strategy in place that we would have to keep diluting and diluting the company’s shareholders. Well, I’m just as much a shareholder as anyone,” he said.
GMP Securities of Toronto is lead underwriter for the proposed offering. Mr. Iacono said he will use most of the proceeds to develop Marmato and pay for the relocation of the town and for other community expenses. Part also will be used for the Carla Gran Colombia Mine near Segovia.
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