Alturas Signs Mining Agreement on Its Copper-Zinc-Gold Callejones
Project in Northern Peru and Enters Into an Agreement for a
US$100,000 Convertible Loan
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - May 26, 2014) - Alturas
Minerals Corp. (the "Company") (TSX-VENTURE:ALT)(LMA:ALT) is
pleased to announce that its 100% Peruvian subsidiary Alturas
Minerals S.A. ("Alturas") has entered into an agreement (the
"Option Agreement") on its 100% owned 2,000 hectare Callejones
mining concessions (the "Concessions") located in northern Peru and
into an agreement for a US$100,000 convertible loan ("Loan
Contract") with the Peruvian company Andes Generating Corporation
S.A.C. ("Ancorp").
Miguel Cardozo, President & CEO of Alturas commented that
"The Callejones deal is a positive development for Alturas and
together with the convertible loan contract secures the disposition
of sufficient cash to maintain the validity of its mining licenses
in Peru and Chile. At the same time, creates a strategic
relationship with a prestigious investment company in Peru that has
expressed its interest in supporting the company in its corporative
and financial development. Alturas remains very optimistic with
respect to the mineral potential of its projects and is evaluating
alternative plans for exploration.
Alturas is currently having conversations with various mining
companies and private investors that are strongly interested in a
joint venture partnership to develop these and other projects from
our high-quality property portfolio in Peru and Chile."
Option
Agreement
Under the 5-year Option Agreement, Ancorp can earn a 100%
interest in the project by incurring a minimum of US$ 200,000 on
exploration expenditures in the first 3 years and by additionally
making staged yearly cash payments to Alturas totaling up to US$
0.5 million. A first payment of US$50,000 was received on May 16th,
2014 on signing of the Public Deed of the option agreement. The
Option Agreement also stipulates that once Ancorp exercises the
option to acquire the Property, Alturas becomes entitled to a
royalty payment on all minerals extracted from the Property,
equivalent to 0.3% of the net smelting return ("NSR"). Furthermore,
if Ancorp decide to transfer the property to a third party, Alturas
will be entitled to 30% of all the net benefits obtained by Ancorp
from that transaction.
Loan
Contract
On May 16th, 2014, simultaneously with the execution of the
Option Agreement, a loan agreement ("Loan Contract") was also
signed by the parties whereby Alturas received a US$100,000 loan,
payable any time before 12 months. The loan is convertible into
Alturas common shares at the option of Ancorp and carries an annual
interest rate of 15%. The conversion price for the principal amount
of the loan has been set at $0.02 per share. In addition, Ancorp
has been granted 2,000,000 warrants exercisable at $0.02 per share
for a period of one year. The conversion price and the exercise
price on the warrants are being granted based on a waiver from the
pricing rules of the TSX Venture Exchange. The loan cannot be
converted or the warrants exercised until the Company has completed
a consolidation unless the conversion price and warrant exercise
price are increased to $0.05. At its annual meeting on May 14,
2014, shareholders overwhelmingly granted approval to consolidate
the common shares. Alturas is in the process of implementing the
consolidation subject to finalizing the consolidation ratio which
will be between 1 post consolidated share for each 10
pre-consolidation shares and 1 post-consolidation share for each 3
pre-consolidation shares.
In addition, the Loan Contract provides that if Alturas is
unable to repay the loan and Ancorp elects not to convert the loan,
Ancorp can reduce its option payments above by US$2 for every $US1
not repaid. Ancorp has no other recourse under the Loan Contract
other than to convert or reduce its obligations under the Option
Agreement.
This transaction remains subject to regulatory and TSX-V
approvals.
About the Callejones Project
The Callejones Property consist of two mining concessions
totaling 2,000 hectares, located 400 kilometers NNW of Lima in the
Department of La Libertad, northern Peru, and lying in the coastal
hills at around 500 meters altitude above sea level. The Callejones
Project is located within the coastal volcanogenic massive sulphide
(VMS) belt of northern Peru, which can be traced for over 1,500
kilometers in a NNW-SSE direction. The belt is characterized by a
marine volcano-sedimentary sequence of mid-Cretaceous age, hosting
a number of clustered, and in some cases very large mineral
deposits, like the Tambogrande project.
Prior to Alturas, the Australian company Pasminco (formerly
Savage) completed extensive exploration work there, completing
geological mapping, stream sediment sampling, trench sampling and
diamond drilling in 1997-98. During 2001, the Canadian junior
company Bear Creek Mining later carried out a limited RC drilling
program on the property, targeted on the earlier work completed by
Pasminco. Total historical expenditure is estimated to be
approximately US$1.5.
Pasminco collected 3,384 rock geochemical samples within
Alturas' present tenure and the results confirmed significantly
elevated values of gold, silver, copper, zinc, lead and molybdenum,
as well as iron. In particular, gold and silver are elevated to
potentially economic values in a large number of samples (reporting
values of several g/t, and tens of g/t, respectively). Gold and
silver values are enriched over the entire project area, whereas
copper, zinc, lead and molybdenum tend to be more concentrated in
the eastern sector.
The property has received a total of 3,552.86 meters of
historical drilling in three campaigns, targeting a narrow
gold-silver "horizon" within the mixed volcano-sedimentary package
immediately beneath a hanging wall andesite lava sequence, using
the detachment fault model. The drilling showed that gold and
silver were the two main economic elements present in the near
surface and significantly anomalous values were intercepted over
intervals of meters to tens of meters. Base metals such as copper,
lead and zinc were intercepted in significantly anomalous amounts
in a few drill holes (0.1-1.0%), over intervals of meters.
However, Alturas considers that a gold-rich VMS model is
instead applicable, by analogy with other gold-rich VMS deposits in
the belt such as Tambogrande some 480 kilometres to the NNW, it is
conceivable that lenses of massive sulphide mineralization in the
order of hundreds of meters in size, could be concealed beneath the
gold-silver rich horizon, which may represent a regional "exhalite"
horizon. No systematic exploration for blind VMS targets has yet
taken place in the district.
As required by the National Instrument 43-101, Alturas's
designated Qualified Person for the supervision of exploration of
the projects is Dr. Paul Pearson, F. AUSIMM, who has reviewed the
technical information reported in this News Release.
About Ancorp
Ancorp is a Peruvian private group with diversified
investment interests developed in more than 30 years of business
history from its partners. Their investments focus has been in the
identification, development and promotion of hydropower projects in
Peru, with a portfolio successfully developed to date, with an
estimated construction investment of over USD$ 8 billion. In
addition, Ancorp´ main partner founded and directed a renown
Peruvian engineering company in 1978, which primary focus has been
the identification, design and development of hydroelectric and
thermal plants, transmission and distribution lines in Latin
America and was merged in 2012 with Dessau International. Other
past and current investments includes participation in real estate
investment, non-metallic mining, medical services, transport,
electro-mechanic industry among others.
About Alturas Minerals
Alturas is a Canadian corporation, and is the indirect
parent of the Peruvian company, Alturas Minerals S.A. ("Alturas
Peru") and of the Chilean company, Alturas Chile Limitada ("Alturas
Chile"). Alturas Peru has been exploring various mineral projects
in Peru since January 2004. Alturas Chile initiated exploration
activities during the second quarter of fiscal 2010. Alturas'
exploration strategy is focused on the discovery of large
copper-gold porphyry/skarn deposits and epithermal gold mineralized
deposits.
Besides Callejones, Alturas has three drill-ready mineral
exploration projects located in Peru, including the Utupara,
Sombrero and Huajoto projects. Alturas also entered into a transfer
agreement on its Pampa Colorada property in northern Peru with
Origen Group S.A.C. but maintains royalty rights and a claw back
clause on 60-100% of the mining rights under certain conditions
(see press release dated January 5th, 2012). Alturas is also
advancing its two optioned gold-copper projects Marilin and Quispe
in the Maricunga belt of northern Chile.
For further information, please visit the Company's website
at www.alturasminerals.com.
Alturas Minerals Corp. |
1 Toronto Street, Suite 201, Toronto, ON,
Canada, M5C 2V6, and |
Av. Del Pinar 180, Suite 804, Chacarilla
del Estanque, Lima 33, Peru |
Should you wish to receive Company news via email, please
email investor@alturasminerals.com and specify "Alturas News" in
the subject line.
The TSX Venture
Exchange and the Bolsa de Valores de Lima do not accept
responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this
release.
Cautionary Language and
Forward Looking Statements
This press release may contain "forward-looking statements",
which are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could
cause actual results and future events to differ materially from
those expressed or implied by such statements. Investors are
cautioned that such statements are not guarantees of future
performance and results. Risks and uncertainties about the
Company's business are more fully discussed in the Company's
disclosure documents filed from time to time with the Canadian
securities authorities.
Alturas Minerals Corp.+ 51-1- 372-3739 (Lima, Peru)+
1-416-363-4900 (Toronto,
Canada)investor@alturasminerals.comwww.alturasminerals.com
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