Orosur Mining confirms start of exploration at Anza project

South America-focussed gold developer and explorer Orosur Mining announced the start of exploration activities with Newmont at the Anzá project in Colombia on Tuesday, and updated the market on the Uruguayan reorganisation process.

The AIM-traded firm said exploration activities at the Anzá project had been initiated within the scope of the exploration agreement with venture option with Newmont Colombia, a subsidiary of Newmont Goldcorp.

It said it had already re-logged 2,400 metres of the drill core from an area north of APTA, which it described as an area where a new broad zone of gold mineralisation covering a continuous strike of 450 metres was discovered by Orosur during the 2018 drilling campaign.

Geophysical and geochemical reinterpretation was now planned at the Anzá project.

“The objective of this initial activity, which requires no field work, is to update the geological model, in conjunction with Newmont,” the company said in its statement.

On its reorganisation process in Uruguay, Orosur confirmed that in December, Loryser - its primary Uruguayan subsidiary - reached an agreement to cease its creditor protection process with the majority of its creditors, with a final endorsement of approximately 72% of creditors by value.

Under the Uruguayan Reorganization Act, the intervenor reviewed the legitimacy of the creditors’ debt claims and prepared the final list of creditors.

The court and the intervenor were in the last stages of finalising the process and publishing the agreement for ratification.

“Although the process has run its course without any significant incidents, it is progressing slower than expected due to the high number of national and international creditors involved; totalling approximately 200, of which some 30 filed a late claim,” the company said.

“As a result of this and also the Uruguayan judiciary holidays in July, the company now expects the ratification process to be extended well into the second half of calendar 2019.

“Once approved by the court, the agreement will be legally binding on all of Loryser’s creditors and Loryser’s creditor protection status will cease together with the Intervenor’s control over Loryser.”

Orosur said Loryser had already began implementing some of the commitments included in the agreement, most notably advancing the remediation of the tailings dam.

The dewatering of the tailings dam was almost completed during the recent southern hemisphere summer months, which reportedly made the activity significantly more efficient, having successfully dewatered and treated around one million cubic metres of material.

That work represented about 40% of the total remediation work in the tailings dam, the board claimed.