Sao Bento Mine - Anglogold/Eldorado Agreement.Business Editors VANCOUVER, B.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 2, 2000 Eldorado Gold Eldorado Gold Corporation TSX: ELD is a Vancouver, British Columbia based company involved in the mining, exploration and development of gold properties in Brazil and Turkey. See also
TSE 1. See Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE). 2. See Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE). :ELD.)(CDNX CDNX See Canadian Venture Exchange (CDNX). :ELD.) is pleased to announce the signing of a Letter of Intent with Anglogold South America South America, fourth largest continent (1991 est. pop. 299,150,000), c.6,880,000 sq mi (17,819,000 sq km), the southern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. Limited ("Anglogold"). The Letter of Intent confirms the intention of Eldorado and Anglogold to enter into an agreement designed to further both parties' interests in and around Eldorado's Sao Bento A data structure used to store embedded documents in an OpenDoc compound document. Bento, which stands for lunch box in Japanese, provides a "container" to hold the data and a format for defining its contents. Mine and Anglogold's adjacent properties in the state of Minas Gerais Minas Gerais (mē`nəs zhərīs`) [Port.,=various mines], state (1996 pop. 16,660,691), 226,707 sq mi (587,171 sq km), E Brazil. The capital is Belo Horizonte. Minas Gerais continues to produce more than half of Brazil's mineral wealth. , Brazil. The Letter of Intent establishes in principle the basic terms of the proposed agreement, including the following: 1) Eldorado, through Sao Bento Mineracao S.A. (Eldorado's wholly owned subsidiary Wholly Owned Subsidiary A subsidiary whose parent company owns 100% of its common stock. Notes: In other words, the parent company owns the company outright and there are no minority owners. ) will be granted a mining lease under which it will have the right to explore, develop and mine any reserves it discovers down dip beyond its existing property boundary onto Anglogold's ground (Figure A). In exchange, a net smelter royalty on the production from gold recovered from Anglogold properties will be paid to Anglogold according to a graduated scale ranging from 0.5% at a gold price less than US$275/oz. to a maximum of 4.0% at a gold price of US$399/oz. or greater. 2) Anglogold, which at present is actively exploring on its property adjacent to Sao Bento (Figure B), will be granted an option valid for a period of 3 years. The option will provide Anglogold with the rights, in the event that a mining operation is developed on its adjacent properties, to access any surplus capacity at the Sao Bento plant and to expand the plant at Anglogold's sole cost and without disruption to Eldorado's operations. Operating costs for the plant would be borne by both companies pro rata [Latin, Proportionately.] A phrase that describes a division made according to a certain rate, percentage, or share. In a Bankruptcy case, when the debtor is insolvent, creditors generally agree to accept a pro rata share of what is owed to them. according to their proportionate planned and actual use of the facility. In addition to sharing in any unit cost savings from utilizing an expanded plant, Eldorado will receive a net smelter royalty based on the same graduated scale as Anglogold's royalty and payable on all gold produced from the Anglogold property that is processed through the Eldorado facility. Sao Bento Mine Geology and Mineralisation The Sao Bento Mine is located in the eastern portion of the Iron Quadrangle quadrangle Rectangular open space completely or partially enclosed by buildings of an academic or civic character. The grounds of a quadrangle are often grassy or landscaped. Mining District in Minas Gerais. The banded iron formation Banded iron formations (also known as banded ironstone formations or BIFs) are a distinctive type of rock often found in primordial sedimentary rocks. The structures consist of repeated thin layers of iron oxides, either magnetite or hematite, alternating with bands ("BIF BIF In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the Burundi Franc. Notes: The currency market, also known as the Foreign Exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average volume of over US $1 trillion. ") orebodies in this district have great vertical continuity and have been mined to depths of 2,500 meters along a down dip length of up to 4,800 meters. The BIF ore horizon at Sao Bento has been mined continuously from surface to the current mining depth of 1,100 meters at the 23rd level. Diamond drill holes have intersected the ore horizon to the 31st level at the Anglogold property boundary. The ore horizon shows unbroken continuity in the deepest drill holes and offers the potential to develop additional ore reserves to depth. Access to deeper ore can be gained from the existing Sao Bento shaft which has the capacity to be deepened to the 31st level without major changes to the existing hoisting equipment. Historically, the Sao Bento Mine has averaged 7,400 tonnes of ore/vertical meter or 448,000 tonnes/level over an average strike length of 400-500 meters. The average ore horizon width has been 3-4 meters with an average grade of 10-11 g/t. Drilling is planned at Sao Bento to further define the ore horizon to the north of the current holes between the 27-31 levels and below the 31st level. Production at Sao Bento in 1999 was 126,581 ounces at a cash operating cost of US$184/ounce and in 1998 the mine celebrated its first millionth ounce of production. "This Letter of Intent establishes the basis for an agreement which provides both Eldorado and Anglogold the opportunity to efficiently, in a cooperative manner, maximize the value for our shareholders. Access to the Sao Bento orebody extension gives Eldorado the opportunity to significantly extend the life of this excellent operation beyond its present 7-8 years," commented Paul Wright, President and Chief Executive Officer. Eldorado Gold Corporation is an international gold mining company with an extensive background in acquiring, discovering and developing quality gold assets. The Company's goal is to create a portfolio of low cost mining assets with a strong financial base. ON BEHALF OF ELDORADO GOLD CORPORATION Paul N. Wright Paul N. Wright President and Chief Executive Officer This and other news releases complete with graphic attachments, if any, are available at the Company's website or may be acquired by fax or mail upon request Eldorado Gold Corporation's shares (Symbol: ELD) trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE) Canada's largest stock exchange, trading approximately 1,200 company stocks and 33 options. ("TSE"). The TSE has neither approved nor disapproved the form or content of this release. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion