Mar 17 2017
Duran Ventures Inc. ("Duran" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has entered into a letter of intent ("LOI") to sell the Company's Ichuña Copper-Silver Project ("Ichuña" or the "Project") located in the Department of Moquegua, Peru, to Tartisan Resources Corp. ("Tartisan") for cash consideration of $50,000 CDN and 500,000 shares of Tartisan. Duran will also receive an additional 500,000 shares of Tartisan as certain Project milestones are achieved by Tartisan, and will retain a 2% Net Smelter Royalty ("NSR") in the Project of which 1% can be purchased by Tartisan for US$500,000. The parties intend to replace the LOI with a definitive agreement (the "Definitive Agreement") containing industry standard terms and conditions no later than May 17, 2017, following due diligence reviews by both parties.
Duran recently announced the sale of its Don Pancho project ("Don Pancho") to Tartisan (see news release dated February 22, 2017), and is pleased to enter into a second transaction with Tartisan. The divestiture of the Company's non-core assets conforms to the Company's business model as a "Cash and Project Generator." With the sale of the Ichuña and Don Pancho projects, the Company will continue to benefit from successful exploration and development on both properties by Tartisan. Mr. Jeffrey Reeder, CEO of Duran states, "We are pleased to enter into a second agreement with Tartisan for the sale of our Ichuña project. We believe Tartisan will be in an excellent position to fund the exploration on both projects. Duran will benefit from the success of Ichuña and Don Pancho, both from its share position in Tartisan and its royalties on future production."
The closing of the transaction is subject to a number of conditions including entering into the Definitive Agreement, the satisfactory completion of due diligence review by the parties, receipt of all required approvals and consents (including all regulatory approvals), and satisfaction of other customary closing conditions.
The Company also announces that it has completed producing Zinc and Lead-Silver concentrates from purchased mineral at the Aguila Norte Processing plant (the "Plant") and will start to process third party mineral shortly. However, as a result of extremely heavy rainfalls and floods in northern Peru due to the El Niño effect, the Regional Government of La Libertad has declared a state of emergency for the region. Plant operations and concentrate shipments need to be delayed until the weather has improved. The decision was made mainly for the safety of the Plant operations staff during the commissioning phase and to maintain the equipment during this time.
Jeffrey Reeder, P.Geo., a qualified person as defined in National Instrument 43-101, is responsible for all technical information contained in this news release.