From the blogosphere -Matt Gordon-Crux Canada and Peru based junior gold miner Rio2 have plenty of experience building mines in South America. The management team’s previous company, Rio Alto, built the La Arena mine and the Shahuindo gold project, which they sold to Tahoe Resources in 2015. When Rio Alto formed in 2009, they were worth C$12 million. By the time they sold to Tahoe resources, they were worth C$1.2 billion. After the sale, the management team, led by stalwart, Alex Black, reformed as Rio2 and have used the proceeds to develop the 5 Moz Fenix Gold Project in the Atacama region of Chile.
The Fenix Gold Project is located in Chile’s Maricunga Mineral Belt, a well-known mining district that contains over 70Moz of gold. Fenix is the largest undeveloped gold heap leach in the Americas, with 5Moz of measured and indicated gold resources and an additional 1.4Moz inferred. These results came from an extensive drilling program completed in 2019. The deposit is a clean, high-purity oxide deposit with no transitional or sulphide mineralization, which is rare in the Maricunga district. Production at the Fenix gold mine is scheduled to begin in 2022, with plans to produce 100,000oz of gold per year for the following 16 years.
Rio2 met several important milestones in 2020. They made significant progress towards mine construction, securing a water source and permitting with the Chilean government. They began working with Scotiabank to help secure funding from resource lenders and hope to have funding in place by April or May 2021. Once funding is in place, the plan is to open the mine within the next 18 months.
The transparency and proven record of success sets the Rio2 team apart. the updated Fenix preliminary feasibility study shows significantly less reserves than the project’s previous studies indicated. Rio2 has found a way to make this work in their favour: a smaller mine means lower CapEx and a shorter time to production. This allows Rio2 to expand their focus to exploration and M&A activity. With one of the largest undeveloped gold deposits in South America and a strong team to develop it, Rio2 is set up for success.
We like these companies for different reasons, but they all have something in common. They will get into production and the experienced management teams have been clear about exactly how that will happen.
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https://articles.cruxinvestor.com/the-next-billion-dollar-mining-companies-5-to-watch-out-for?utm_content=153271536