RE: any suitors -potentials dreaddogs,
Rio Alto has a small gold oxide deposit near surface and is being produced at a very reasonable cost per ounce -- probably around $500 per ounce. The resource is quite small, mabye about 6 years. The 2nd phase of La Arena is a massive copper gold sulphide deposit. Economics on the sulphides isn't clear. The Rio land holdings offer massive exploration potential. So far Rio has done very little exploration as the reosurce was already defined before they options the land package.
Alex Black the man behind Rio Alto is a briallant deal maker. Black got an option on La Arena from a major for 47M. He then found financing, first by a reverse take over of Mexican Silver, a company with cash but no resource and limited management skills. He got a Lima listing, did a private placement in Lima, a gold back loan and several rounds of financing in NY and London. The capex to exploit the gold oxides was minimal -- maybe 30M for a dump leach operation. Black lives in Lima so he knows how the EPA process worked and got it done. When Black took over Mexican Silver, shares got as low as 6 cents and it traded below 20 cents for quite while. The rest is history. A beautiful 20 banger for those that could see the potential.
I'm very new to Gran Colombia so I'm not sure if Rio is a good comparable. I'd love to hear a short summary on Gran from some of the knowledgable posters here. I'm reading the MD&A and financials but I'm not seeing a complete picture yet. Lots of dots to connect in my mind. But I did take a position at 30 cents since i love the production and price combination.