Caldas Gold agrees extension to Marmato mining contract

Caldas Gold Corp, the Canadian junior mining company, has reached an agreement with Colombia's Agencia Nacional de Mineria (ANM), on the economic conditions for a 30-year extenstion to its Marmato mining contract 014-89M, which is set to expire in October.

The key conditions associated with the approval of the extension include:

• An increase in the royalty rate paid to the ANM on gold production, from 6 to 7 percent. The ANM royalty on silver revenue will remain at 8 percent.
• An ongoing commitment to fund annual social investment based on a rate of US$25 per ounce produced, adjusted annually based on changes in the US CPI Index, and subject to an annual minimum of US$300,000, which is also indexed annually based on the US CPI Index; and
• A contract premium of US$6 million to be paid over a four-year period, indexed annually based on the US CPI Index.

The ANM has indicated that its process related to the technical information and finalization of the legal documents for the extension will be completed by mid-January.

“We are very pleased with the cooperative manner in which our mining title extension request is being handled. It is clear that all parties understand the importance of this project to the nation, the Department of Caldas, the local community at Marmato and to our investors,” said Serafino Iacono, Chairman and CEO of Caldas Gold, commenting on the extension update. 

“We look forward to a successful conclusion of the extension process later this month, enabling us to bring the Aris Gold transaction to a close and to move ahead more aggressively with the MDZ expansion by accessing funds available under the Wheaton Precious Metals’ stream and being held in escrow from our Gold Notes financing.”

Caldas Gold is currently advancing a major expansion and modernisation of the underground mining operations at its Marmato Project in the department of Caldas, Colombia. 

The company also owns 100 precent of the Juby Project, an advanced exploration-stage gold project located within the Shining Tree area in the southern part of the Abitibi greenstone belt about 100 kilometres south-southeast of the Timmins gold camp.