Curipamba

Commodity
Copper, Zinc, Gold and Silver

Location
Ecuador

Operator
Adventus Mining (75%) / Salzaar Resources (25%)

Royalty Details
Terms: Altius owns a 2% Net Smelter Returns (NSR) royalty on the Curipamba project that includes the high grade El Domo Deposit.

Asset Highlights

• High-grade asset - Proven and Probable Mineral Reserves of 6.5 M tonnes at 1.93% Cu, 2.49% Zn, 2.52 g/t Au, 45.7 g/t Ag, 0.25% Pb (Q4 2021)
• Highlights from the Feasibility Study completed and announced in Q4 2021: After-tax IRR of 32% and NPV8% of US$259 million for initial open-pit development only
• Average annual production expected per Feasibility Study of 10,463 tpa copper and 21,390 tpa copper equivalent over the life-of-mine

Overview

In early 2022 Adventus announced a US$235.5 million stream/offtake project finance package for Curipamba with Wheaton Precious Metals and Trafigura - https://www.adventusmining.com/news/122583. The package consists of $180 million in precious metal stream financing from Wheaton and a $55 million loan and offtake agreement with Trafigura.  The ESIA technical approval from the government of Ecuador was received in Q4 2021, with final environmental approvals now expected in the second half of 2023 as per the project update announcement from Adventus dated September 12, 2022. 

Background

In December 2016, Altius effectively founded Adventus through an IPO process to liberate an extensive portfolio of zinc exploration projects in Ireland and Eastern Canada that was opportunistically assembled over 4 years. Altius received shares of Adventus and underlying project-based royalties on projects it vended in Ireland and Newfoundland.

Altius later acquired the Curipamba project royalty from Resource Capital Fund (RCF) in 2019 for US$10 million to secure royalty exposure on this high caliber asset. This also aligned Altius founding equity stake in Adventus with a royalty covering its Ecuador focus. Further details on the Curipamba project can be found here.