Aura Minerals closes sale of Gold Road mine in Arizona to PPG

Aura Minerals, through its fully-owned subsidiary, has wrapped up the sale of its indirect fully-owned subsidiary Z79 Resources, which owns the Gold Road mine in Arizona through Gold Road Mining Corp. (GRMC).

Gold Road mine is a narrow vein underground gold mine located in the Oatman mining district of northern Arizona.

The buyer of the Gold Road mine is PPG Arizona Holdings Acquisition, an affiliate of Pandion Mine Finance. The deal was closed for nominal cash consideration of $1.

Aura Minerals acquired the underground gold mine in Arizona for the same price it has sold.

Rodrigo Barbosa — Aura Minerals President and CEO said: “We knew the risks involved on Gold Road Acquisition, which was that it did not have gold reserves and only resources, and that is why we decided to start small, assume a non-recourse debt, and, over the years, generate cash from the operation to reinvest and grow it to over 50k Oz.

“Unfortunately, the geological risks materialized. We did not find the expected grades and the operations did not generate cash to reinvest and grow.

“Although it remains interesting geological potential, it would require significant additional cash and time (several years) in exploration. Therefore, we decided to stop and focus our efforts on our internal greenfield projects that has a more robust and advanced geological understanding.”