Gold-copper explorer Titan tops up cash pile with $US15m project sale

Titan Minerals (ASX:TTM) will sell its non-core Zaruma mine and Portovelo process plant assets in Ecuador for $US15m ($19.4m) in staged payments, plus a 2% net smelter return royalty on future copper production.

The buyer is Pelorus Minerals, a newly formed company which intends to list on the London Stock Exchange in 2022.

The cash proceeds will also allow Titan to focus its full attention on the development of its flagship Dynasty gold project and exploration at the Copper Duke project in Ecuador.

Dynasty and Copper Duke

Titan has a large, ~2moz and growing flagship gold project called Dynasty in the country’s south.

A +12,000m drilling campaign at the Dynasty will aim to convert it to a JORC-compliant resource – a must-have for ASX-list companies — and ‘step out’ along the 9km of mostly untested strike to make it bigger.

In February, numerous assay results like 5.9m @ 5.35 g/t gold and 20 g/t silver from 37m extended the size of the previously modelled resource at the ‘Cerro Verde’ prospect.

Overall, these results confirm the potential to increase the resource at Dynasty.

Modelling in support of the planned JORC resource estimate for Dynasty is well advanced, the company says.

Copper Duke is an early stage porphyry copper-gold/epithermal gold project 18km east of Dynasty.

Outstanding historic exploration results defined at least six major targets, including a major copper-gold porphyry complex at El Huato.

In March, early geophysical work identified clusters of intrusion-related anomalism over an area of greater than 12sqkm, “on par with many tier one deposits around the world,” managing director Laurie Marsland said.

“It is an exceptional copper gold porphyry exploration project, one that would be attractive to any major mining company and we think results to date support our view.”

Development and discovery

Titan’s core focus remains firmly set on developing Dynasty and making a discovery at Copper Duke, Marsland says.

“The sale of the Zaruma Mine and the Portovelo Process Plant strengthens our balance sheet and allows us to reduce and manage the liabilities we inherited following the Core Gold acquisition,” he says.

“Given the improvement in our financial position as a result of this non-core asset sale, we expect to continue drilling and deliver an updated JORC resource at Dynasty following the completion of the Cerro Verde drill programme.

“The sale of Zaruma and Portovelo has been a lengthy complicated process.

“We acknowledge the patience of our shareholders and appreciate their continued support. With the focus on creating value for our shareholders, divestment of other non-core assets is planned over the remainder of this year.”

This article was developed in collaboration with Titan Minerals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.