Feb 25 2015
Candente Gold Corp. is pleased to announce it has signed a Letter of Intent for an agreement pertaining to the Mexico Mine Tailings Reprocessing Operation planned at El Oro, Mexico.
The LOI is between Candente Gold and Minera Arcu S.A. de C.V ("Minera Arcu"), which has extensive experience and technical expertise in developing and operating tailings reprocessing projects in Mexico. In addition to their expertise, Minera Arcu agrees to invest capital required in respect of the acquisition and installation of equipment related to both testing and operating of the mineral concentration and recovery processes for the Tailings. During the testing period Candente Gold will receive all revenues from gold and silver sales. If the test work is successful, then Candente Gold will evaluate the installation of a full size plant. The LOI provides for all profits from gold and silver sales to be shared by Candente Gold and Arcu 50/50.
The testing will be conducted in two stages. Stage One will start this week and is expected to process up to 50 tonnes through a pilot plant during a calibration stage. Stage Two will start as soon as permits are received, which is expected by the second half of March 2015. During Stage Two it is anticipated that approximately 2,500 tonnes will be processed.
Joanne Freeze, President and CEO said the Company is very pleased to be proceeding with definitive test work for a potentially viable option for reprocessing the Tailings (with Arcu) without requiring the Company to provide capital expenditures for the operation.
Candente Gold reserves the exclusive right to decide to proceed or not with the Minera Arcu process, or to proceed with an alternate method of reprocessing the Tailings if such alternate method, in the sole determination of the Company, is considered technically superior and/or projected to provide better financial returns to Candente Gold. Concurrently, the Company is continuing with testing of other methods for recovery in order to determine the Company's options for maximum profitability from the Tailings.
The Mexico Mine Tailings contain an Inferred Resource* of 1,267,400 Tonnes grading 2.94 Au g/t, 75.12 Ag g/t containing 119,900 ounces of gold and 3,061,200 ounces of silver.
*Note: Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. All figures have been rounded to reflect the accuracy of the estimate. For more information see "National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report on the Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate of the Mexico Mine Tailings" prepared by Nadia Caira, P.Geo. and Allan Reeves, P.Geo., dated August 25, 2014 with an effective date of July 8, 2014 (the "Technical Report") available at www.sedar.com.
On another matter, on February 20, 2015 the Company closed a second tranche of the previously announced non-brokered private placement (the "Private Placement") such that total proceeds of $571,999.89 have been raised and 19,066,663 shares have been issued at a price of $0.03 per Share. The Private Placement was oversubscribed however TSX rules did not permit the additional subscriptions. All Shares issued pursuant to the Private Placement are subject to a four-month hold period.
Considering both tranches, Joanne C. Freeze, President and CEO of Candente Gold, Paul H. Barry and Dr. Kenneth Thomas, all directors of Candente Gold, subscribed for and were issued 2,000,000, 2,089,043 and 400,001 Shares respectively.
The net proceeds of the Private Placement will be used for funding evaluations of the Company's El Oro project, including metallurgical test work, and for general corporate purposes.