TORONTO - Caldas Gold Corp. [CGC-TSXV; ALLXF-OTCQX] on Thursday, February 4 formally announced that it has changed its name to Aris Gold Corp. and that a new board of directors and management team are in place.
In addition, net proceeds of an $85 million private placement led by the incoming board and management team as well as US$83 million of gold-linked notes have been released from escrow.
It is expected the company's shares and warrants will begin trading under the symbols ARIS and ARIS.WT on February 8, 2021. The company said it has received conditional approval for the listing of its common shares and warrants on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
These corporate changes and escrow releases follow the formal receipt of the 30-year mine license extension for the Marmato Mine in Colombia.
Proceeds of the $85 million private placement were expected to fill a funding gap for the 100%-owned Marmato Mine expansion where production will be increased to over 150,000 ounces annually.
It was previously announced that once the financing is complete, Gran Colombia Gold Corp. [GCM-TSX] was expected to own approximately 45% of Caldas Gold and will have the right to nominate two directors to the Caldas board once the Aris transaction is complete.
Caldas also owns 100% of the Juby Project, an advanced exploration stage gold project located within the Shining Tree area in the southern part of the Abitibi greenstone belt about 100 km southeast of Timmins, Ontario.
The Marmato Project consists of the existing producing underground gold and silver mine in the Upper Zone, including the right to mine in the lower portion of the neighbouring Echandia license area, the existing 1,200 tonne/day processing plant and the area encompassing the Deeps Zone mineralization. Those assets are all located within the mining license area referred to as Zona Baja. The current mine has been in production since 1991.
The Marmato Project contains mineral resources of 2 million ounces of gold in the measured and indicated categories and 3.3 million ounces of gold inferred.
Following completion of the Aris transaction, the Marmato license extension process will have been completed and the Marmato Deeps Zone expansion project will be fully-financed ahead of construction start, which is expected in the second half of 2021.
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