Oroco Resources raises $2.3 million for Mexico metals project
Oroco Resources Corp. [OCO-TSXV, ORRCF-OTC] said it has received $2.3 million in gross proceeds from an oversubscribed private placement financing with proceeds earmarked for the advancement of the Santo Tomas copper-molybdenum-gold project, located in Sinaloa state, Mexico.
The private placement consisted of 9.2 million units of the company priced at 25 cents per unit. Each unit consists of one common share and one common share purchase warrant, each of which entitles the holder to purchase one common share at an exercise price of 40 cents for 24 months following closing
On Tuesday, Oroco shares eased 3.4% or $0.01 to 28 cents. The shares currently trade in a 52-week range of 71 cents and 23 cents.
Oroco holds a 85.5% interest in those central concessions, covering 1,173 hectares of the Santo Tomas project. These are the “Core Concessions.’’ The company also holds an 80% stake in an additional 7,861 hectares of mineral concessions that surround and lie adjacent to the Core Concessions.
Back in August, 2024, Oroco announced a revised preliminary economic assessment (PEA) and updated mineral resource estimate (MRE) for the North and South zones at its Santo Tomas copper-molybdenum-gold project.
The PEA is based on a staged open pit mine and processing plant achieving 60,000 tonnes per day production in year one and expanding to 120,000 tonnes per day in year eight over a 22.6-year mine life.
“Production is preceded by two years of construction and one concurrent year of pre-stripping,’’ the company said.
The plan starts with the use of smaller equipment to provide rapid entry to the mineralized material and maintains a higher-grade feed profile to delay the requirement of an expansion until year eight. Copper equivalent production (CuEq) in the first seven years is forecast at 1.34 billion pounds at a mill feed average grade of 0.51% CuEq.
The initial capital cost is estimated at US$1.1 billion, with sustaining and expansion capital costs pegged at US$1,73 billion. Total life-of-mine payable copper production is expected to reach 4.7 billion pounds.
The PEA mineral resource estimate includes two primary mineralized zones: North Zone and South Zone. These zones display similar mineralization styles but are physically separated by localized post-mineralization faults and material currently identified as waste due to a lack of drilling.
The North Zone pit (sulphide) is estimated to contain 540.6 million tonnes of 0.37% CuEq or 4.46 billion pounds of CuEq. According to the updated MRE, the South Zone pit (oxide) contains an inferred resource of 530.3 million tonnes of 0.35% CuEq or 4.05 billion pounds of CuEq.
The mine production plan contains 825.5 million tonnes of mineralized sulphide material with an average grade of 0.37% CuEq and 1.13 billion tonnes of waste material (including mineralized oxide), resulting in a strip ratio of 1.38 over the life of mine.