Coro Amends Terms of San Jorge Agreement
February 29 2012 - 12:45PM
Marketwired Canada
Coro Mining Corp. ("Coro" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:COP) is pleased to
announce that Franco-Nevada Corporation ("Franco Nevada") and the Company have
agreed to amend the terms of the Purchase Agreement by which Coro may acquire
its 100% interest in Minera San Jorge ("MSJ"). Franco Nevada acquired Lumina
Royalty Corp, the previous owner of MSJ in December 2011.
The amended terms for Coro to acquire 100% of MSJ are as follows;
-- Option payments by Coro of US$1.25 million per year, for 10 years,
payable quarterly, commencing March 31, 2012
-- Coro may at any time, prepay the outstanding amount with a one-time
payment equal to the net present value of the future payments, using a
5% discount rate
-- A 7.5% Net Smelter Return ("NSR") payable by Coro on all gold produced
from the property
-- The option payments are not payable when exceeded by the gold NSR
payment for the period
-- No other consideration, obligations, payments, or royalties are due to
Franco Nevada, and Coro may withdraw from the Agreement at any time by
not making the payments due.
Table 1 compares the amended terms with the previous acquisition terms. The
companies have signed a non-binding letter of intent and are in the process of
finalizing the amended agreement.
Alan Stephens, President and CEO of Coro commented, "We are very pleased that
Franco Nevada has shown its willingness to modify the terms of the Purchase
Agreement. The previous agreement contemplated US$9.25 million in payments over
the next 15 months; the new option payment schedule allows Coro to stage its
investment in the project until it has greater certainty on the ability to
permit the project in Mendoza province. The Company will provide its
shareholders with an update of the status of San Jorge shortly."
As of December 31, 2011 the Company had approximately CA$12 million in cash, and
is well funded to advance its projects.
Table:1 - Comparative Table of Significant Acquisition terms
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Previous Outstanding Payments Amended Terms
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Remaining Cash US$9.25m- Due US$5m in May US$1.25m annually,
Payments 2012 and US$4.25m in May 2013 payable quarterly,
commencing March 31,
for ten years
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Commercial Sulphide Payment: None
Production Payment US$0.02 per lb on the copper
contained in the mineable
proven and probable sulphide
reserves
Oxide Payment:
US$0.025 per lb on the copper
contained in the mineable
proven and probable oxide
reserves
NB: The total cash payments of
US$16m were deductible from
the first of the above
payments
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Copper Royalty A copper royalty was also due None
on any production in excess of
the aforementioned reserves
payments of US$0.015 per lb of
production from the sulphides
and US$0.02 per lb of
production from the oxides.
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Non-Copper NSR 1.5% NSR on all non-copper 7.5% NSR on all gold
production produced
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CORO MINING CORP.
Alan Stephens, President and CEO
About Coro Mining Corp.:
The Company was founded with the goal of building a mining company focused on
medium-sized base and precious metals deposits in Latin America. The Company
intends to achieve this through the exploration for, and acquisition of,
projects that can be developed and placed into production. Coro's porphyry
copper properties include the Berta, El Desesperado, Chacay, Llancahue, and
Celeste exploration projects located in Chile and the advanced San Jorge
porphyry copper-gold project, in Argentina.
This news release includes certain "forward-looking statements" under applicable
Canadian securities legislation. Such forward-looking statements or information,
including but not limited to those with respect to the prices of copper,
estimated future production, estimated costs of future production, permitting
time lines, 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 such forward-looking statements or information. Such
factors include, among others, the actual prices of copper, the factual results
of current exploration, development and mining activities, changes in project
parameters as plans continue to be evaluated, as well as those factors disclosed
in the Company's documents filed from time to time with the securities
regulators in the Provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan,
Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and
Newfoundland and Labrador.
About Benton
Benton is a Canadian based junior with multiple joint ventures and a diversified
property portfolio in Gold, Nickel, Copper, and Platinum group elements. The
Company currently has approximately $8.1 million in cash, owns approximately
57.86 million shares in Coro Mining Corp. (TSX:COP), holds approximately 348,000
shares of Stillwater Mining Company (NYSE:SWC), holds 782,500 shares in Marathon
Gold Corp. (TSX:MOZ), holds 1.6 million shares in Puget Ventures (TSX
VENTURE:PVS), holds 8.47 million shares of Mineral Mountain Resources Ltd. (TSX
VENTURE:MMV), and holds 815,000 shares of Bell Copper Corporation (TSX
VENTURE:BCU), holds 1.67 million shares of Trillium North Minerals (TSX
VENTURE:TNM), holds 1.55 million shares of Golden Dory Resources (TSX
VENTURE:GDR) and holds 3 million shares of Parkside Resources (currently
private). Benton is currently in the process of spinning out the majority of its
assets by a plan of arrangement into a new listed company in order to separate
its 41.6% investment in Coro Mining from its cash, equities and exploration
assets. Benton shareholders will receive one share in this new company for each
share of Benton held pursuant to regulatory approval.
On behalf of the Board of Directors of Benton Resources Corp.,
Stephen Stares, President
Forward-looking statements in this release are made pursuant to the safe harbor
provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform act of 1995. Investors
are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve risks and
uncertainties.