VANCOUVER, British Columbia,
August 8, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --
Capstone Mining Corp. ("Capstone") (TSX: CS) is pleased to
announce that it has entered into an option agreement (the
"Option") with Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile S.A. ('SQM") to
earn up to 70% of a property, Project Providencia (the "Property").
The initial option is on 350,000 hectares (3,500 square kilometres)
in Chile's II Region and would be
reduced overtime to a maximum of 50,000 hectares if a joint venture
is formed.
The Property is located 50 kilometres east of the city of
Taltal, approximately half way between Capstone's Santo Domingo
Project and Anglo American's Mantos
Blancos copper mine. It rests at a mean elevation of 1,800 metres
above sea level, with mostly gentle topography and it benefits from
the Pan-American Highway cutting through the centre of the
block.
Due to the unique nature of SQM's core business as a producer of
specialty fertilizers and inorganic industrial chemicals,
significant portions of the large Property in the Cretaceous belt
have been exclusively held by SQM for decades for the value of
their surface deposits of nitrates and iodine, among other
minerals. The Property has seen little to no modern exploration for
bedrock hosted, metallic mineral deposits, or even comprehensive
geological mapping, prospecting and geophysical surveying, despite
being centrally located in one of the world's largest copper mining
districts. Capstone's strategy will be to cover the very large
holding with several state-of-the-art airborne, remote sensing
technologies to identify discrete anomalies or areas of
prospectively for more detailed ground follow-up.
"Capstone's strategic goal is to expand its asset base and
selectively add to our portfolio of exploration projects in the
Americas," said Brad Mercer, Sr.
Vice President, Exploration of Capstone. "This is an excellent
opportunity to look at a very large under-explored land package in
the world's most prolific copper jurisdiction, with an option to
make a more significant investment in stages if exploration results
warrant. The proximity to Capstone's Santo Domingo Project and
other copper mines offers potential synergies should exploration
prove successful. "
"Capstone geologists believe that the property is prospective
for a variety of styles of mineralization, including iron
oxide-copper-gold ("IOCG"), porphyry copper and Mantos Blancos
type. Activities will be led by our Chilean geology team who were
instrumental in the discovery of Santo Domingo IOCG deposit," he
added.
Terms of the Agreement
Capstone has paid SQM US$1million
upon signing and will immediately commission a high resolution,
combined magnetic and radiometric airborne survey over the block.
Both surveys will be useful in providing a basic geological
framework from which to start exploration but the magnetic survey
will be particularly useful in identifying anomalies of interest
since the principal target is a magnetite rich IOCG deposit,
similar to Santo Domingo.
Capstone will be the operator of the project and may earn up to
a 70% interest in the Property over 7.5 years in incremental steps
by spending on exploration and land holding costs. There are three
options that may be exercised at Capstone's sole discretion. At any
time during the term of the agreement, Capstone has the right to
withdraw from the project, whereby the agreement will terminate and
management of the project will return to SQM.
About Capstone Mining Corp.
Capstone Mining Corp. is a Canadian base metals mining company,
committed to the responsible development of our assets and the
environments in which we operate. We are preferentially focused on
copper, with two producing copper mines, the Cozamin
copper-silver-zinc-lead mine located in Zacatecas State,
Mexico and the Minto copper-gold-silver mine in Yukon, Canada. In addition, Capstone has two
development projects, the large scale 70% owned Santo Domingo copper-iron-gold project in
Chile in partnership with Korea
Resources Corporation and the 100% owned Kutcho
copper-zinc-gold-silver project in British Columbia, as well as exploration
properties in Canada, Chile, Mexico
and Australia. Using our cash flow
and strong balance sheet as a springboard, Capstone aims to grow
with continued mineral resource and reserve expansions,
exploration, and through acquisitions in politically stable,
mining-friendly regions. Our headquarters are in Vancouver, Canada and we are listed on the
TSX. Further information is available at
http://www.capstonemining.com.
Cautionary Note Regarding
Forward-Looking Information
This document may contain "forward-looking information" within
the meaning of Canadian securities legislation and "forward-looking
statements" within the meaning of the United States Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively,
"forward-looking statements"). These forward-looking statements are
made as of the date of this document and Capstone Mining Corp. (the
"Company") does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to
update these forward-looking statements, except as required under
applicable securities legislation.
Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future
performance and reflect Company management's expectations or
beliefs regarding future events and include, but are not limited
to, statements with respect to the success of exploration
activities, environmental risks, unanticipated reclamation
expenses, title disputes or claims and limitations on insurance
coverage. In certain cases, forward-looking statements can be
identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does
not expect", "is expected", "outlook", "budget", "scheduled",
"estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not
anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases
or statements that certain actions, events or results "may",
"could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be
achieved" or the negative of these terms or comparable terminology.
In this document certain forward-looking statements are identified
by words including "scheduled", "plan", "planned", "estimated",
"projections", "projected" and "expected". By their very nature
forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results,
performance or achievements of the Company to be materially
different from any future results, performance or achievements
expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such
factors include, among others, risks related to actual results of
current exploration activities; changes in project parameters as
plans continue to be refined; future prices of mineral resources;
accidents; dependence on key personnel; labour pool constraints;
labour disputes; availability of infrastructure required for the
development of mining projects; delays in obtaining governmental
approvals or financing; and other risks of the mining industry as
well as those factors detailed from time to time in the Company's
interim and annual financial statements and management's discussion
and analysis of those statements, all of which are filed and
available for review on SEDAR at http://www.sedar.com. Although the
Company has attempted to identify important factors that could
cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from
those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other
factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as
anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that
forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual
results and future events could differ materially from those
anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should
not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.
For further information:
Cindy Burnett, VP, Investor
Relations and Communications
+1-604-637-8157
cburnett@capstonemining.com