Aris management has really been showing their highly experienced skills. Around November last year, they announced investing $13 million to get an idle ball mill into production at their flag ship mine Segovia. The result of the investment is they will be bringing online roughly Q1, 2025 another 100,000 ounces of annual Gold production.
They are developing underground operations at Marmato expected to add another 170,000 ounces per year in early 2026. At 500,000 ounces production per year, Aris could be sporting a market cap around $2 Billion in late 2026. This is just to catch up with peers.
There's a very promising deposit Soto Notre in eastern Columbia. They owned 20% of the JV for a cost of $200 million. Once they are able to achieve permitting, Aris had the option of paying another $300 million to get them 50% ownership. That was a big headache for me as that would mean high dilution (60 - 80 million shares) to just get to 50%. Not to mention, that would not include the $100's of millions to raise to develop the property into a mine.
Mid-May they announced a sweet heart deal. They'll issue 15.75 million shares to their JV partner to obtain 51% ownership of Soto Notre, which is just 10% dilution. Once the permits are in hand, they issue another 6 million shares. All in all, we are looking at 22 million shares to acquire a majority stake in the project. Soto Notre could be one of the most profitable mines in the world. All-in-sustaining-costs are below $500 per ounce. Most majors produce at an average AISC of $1400 per ounce.
Personally, I am not fond of Toroparu. It is a low grade deposit (1.5 g/ton) out in the middle of nowhere. I'd like to see them sell that one off and buy out a junior miner putting a deposit into production.