Minera Alamos Inc. (“Minera” or the “Company”) (TSXV: MAI) is pleased to announce that it has received a positive notification from the Mexican environmental authorities (Secretaria de Medio Ambiente yRecursos Naturales – “SEMARNAT”) regarding the Company’s permit application (MIA/ETJ) for the development of the La Fortuna Gold Project (“Fortuna”). The notification confirms the successful completion of the technical review phase of the Company’s application (Estudio Tecnico Justificativo – “ETJ”) for the change of land use to construct mining and processing facilities at the Fortuna project area.
Following the completion of the change of land use payments, SEMARNAT will be in a position to issue the formal approval documentation for the project.
“The receipt of this notification represents a major milestone for the Company. Despite some procedural changes in the MIA/ETJ application process that caused early delays, the notice was received a little over a year following the completion of our strategic partnership with Osisko Gold Royalties and starts the transformation of the Company from a junior explorer to a growing gold producer” stated Darren Koningen, CEO of Minera Alamos. “Our highly experienced Mexican technical team continues to demonstrate the ability to advance concurrently our full portfolio of late-stage gold development projects.
Mexico remains one of the world’s premier mine development locations with respect to the timeframes required for permitting of new operations. We now eagerly await similar notifications regarding the Company’s Santana gold project which remains our first priority for construction consideration in 2019 according to the Company’s current development schedule.”
The receipt of a MIA-ETJ permits for the Fortuna project will allow the Company to initiate applications for other state/local permits that will be required in advance of any commercial mine production. These cover activities such as water use and explosives. In addition, the Company can advance discussions with potential contractors related to mining, crushing, construction, etc. The Fortuna MIA-ETJ applications were structured to provide the Company with significant flexibility to further optimize the development approach for the project and the ability to expand the project operations organically once resources are increased.
In advance of a final construction decision, the Company has also initiated discussions with a number of project finance groups that can provide debt facilities complementary to the Fortuna royalty structure arranged with strategic partner Osisko Gold Royalties. The recently completed PEA (see news release dated August 16th 2018) for the project demonstrated an after-tax internal rate-of-return in excess of 90%, a rapid payback of capital of approximately one year and low production costs for an initial 50,000 oz (AuEq) per annum operation (see La Fortuna Gold Project below).
SOURCE: MINERA ALAMOS
DATE: NOVEMBER 21, 2018