Aris Mining Corp (ARMN)

[geodan]

Gran Colombia, Serafino and Denarius MiniArticle

T, you prompted this with Whisperer thing.

Just ran into some info on Denarius Silver today, was aware that Gran bot 36% for $10 million but not the assets. https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2021/02/22/2179390/0/en/Gran-Colombia-Announces-Acquisition-of-Approximately-36-Equity-Interest-in-Denarius-Silver-Corp.html Sorta blown away by what found out about it and Serafino.

Northern Miner interviewed him, and explains why he has since done deals with Giustra and Friedland recently: “My God, I was just 29-years-old, [but] it was time for me to move on,” Iacono recalled. “I started seeing an opportunity in the gold sector. There was a discovery of three million ounces of gold [in Venezuela]. In those days, three million ounces of gold was huge. So, we went in and started staking ground in the surrounding area. After a few months, this area became the hottest area for all the junior mining companies.”
With the help of his friend Giustra, Iacono forged an alliance with Robert Friedland, brought in Ian Telfer as chief executive, and Venezuela Gold Fields was created. https://www.northernminer.com/global-mining-symposium/natural-resources-entrepreneur-serafino-iacono-shares-the-know-how-and-the-know-who/1003824914/
What did he have to say about Gran Colombia?

“Gran Colombia is a fantastic vehicle with multi-dimensional projects,” Iacono replied. “One of the most important is the Segovia project. We are the largest producer right now in the country, with close to 250,000 ounces of gold this year.”

He said that the company has one of the most important concessions in Colombia. What makes it unique is that Gran Colombia has title and ownership of what is called a ‘king’s right’. They are the owners of the land, which currently comprises over 35 sq. km, and they own the mineral rights (they pay a royalty to the government of Colombia).

“It is one of the oldest mines in Colombia. It is the number three, on grade, richest mine in the world. We produce an average of 17 grams of gold. And it’s been producing between 11 and 17 grams for the past 150 years. It hasn’t stopped. More than six million ounces of gold have been produced in the past. And the last million ounces we have produced since we took the mine in 2011.”

The next plans for the company are to grow its profile and, more importantly, to increase gold production. “Our goal in Segovia is, within the next four years, to take production to 400,000 ounces.” So much about fears of Segovia running out of gold soon IMHO, they are planning on nearly doubling production.

Also found a Investing Whisperer article of Denarius just written 5-6-2021
DENARIUS SILVER BUYS THE PERFECT ASSET THAT JUST NEEDS A LITTLE FIX (and they have The Fixer)

He fixes things. He is like a home renovator. His biggest renovation job was Pacific Rubiales, a heavy oil play in Colombia that he took from 10,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) to 300,000+ bopd in the 2000s.

“I've done a bunch of fixer uppers. I can tell you that with Pacific Rubiales, that growth we did was the same concession that everybody said that it couldn't be done because of the guerillas, because of security, because their API wouldn't flow, because, because, because…
“And when somebody tells me, "Because you cannot do it," that makes it all so interesting for me to try to do it.

“Same thing that we did with Choco 10 in Venezuela years ago. We took a mine that (the previous owner) could not develop. And a year and a half later, I put it in operation, and it was producing 200,000 ounces a year.

That concession, I bought it for $700,000 after they had spent $50 million on it. Why? They had illegal miners invading the property. They didn't know how to deal with it.”

“I picked up our company NGX Energy, a gas play in Colombia for not much more than $3 million market cap and we funded it and now we already have one discovery and a $150 million market cap, and more discoveries are coming and we’re going to keep growing the company.

On Denarius Silver? The “silver” part of the name comes from their Guia Antigua project in Colombia, which is really an extension of GCM’s nearby high-grade Segovia projects—except a much larger silver grade than GCM. He sees a near term producer here generating cash flow.
“We're going to start a drilling program, $3-million drilling program to start developing the first three levels that exist in the mine, put some reserves and we're going to go into early mining because we can take the material to our plant in Segovia, where the material can be processed over there, and we can generate cash flow.”

Guia Antigua, it sits 500 meters away from where we are exploring a brownfield area in our operation in Segovia, right next to a former mine called Vera, where we just hit six drill holes with two ounces of gold and half a kilo of silver per ton. This is the same thing in that concession, but it's owned by Denarius and we're talking about an average of seven to eight grams of gold with 300 grams of silver per ton.

So they do not need to build a mill, just use Segovia's mill at first. And Segovia is expanding its mill, is that related to Denarius? My guess yes, but to go to 400,000 oz gold, they will have to expand it more.

Exciting isn't it. But that is the small part of Denarius. The Big Prize—Lomero Poyatos in Spain. “We have an open-pit of 20 million tons of four grams of gold in the first 200 meters, then it goes underground in very wide veins systems. And when I'm talking about wide, 10 to 20 meters in veins systems, but you have four grams of gold, one ounce of silver, 1% copper, 2% zinc and lead.

“We are going to get to work in there, getting liquidity everybody, paying everybody, and just fixing it up. It just needs somebody to do the mechanics; somebody not afraid to do it.” This chart https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/zku-wou2P7vnnezYGa9Sj4WY3d6fE3FDKuh7O0A_oel8O_oWyYMmRilpbFBdtC1dXql6UHxIXml1Uj10JLg1xCVYT01TayR_O9lS89yGDfw1s01t4CbjH1eHp5IRxfkIq_wfeYDd_4rg=s0-d-e1-ft shows 440 million pounds copper, 2 million oz gold, 44 million oz silver, 415 million pounds lead, 1.5 BILLION pounds zinc. Add that all up and you are talking many $billions. And Gran has 36% for $10 million for that and Guia Antigua??!!

There is apparently problems getting the rich Lomero Poyatos in operation. Not that mining is prevented in Spain, nearby Matsa Mine, a US$1.1 billion polymetallic producer doing 5000 tons per day (tpd.) from three deposits. Matsa is a joint venture between global commodity trading giant Trafigura, and the government of Abu Dhabi’s company Mubadala. But apparently harder than most places. "There is lots to do. Iacono says operating a mine in Spain takes a lot of attention to detail, double and triple checking everything."

The deeper look into Gran Colombia the more amazed am at how big they can grow and the stock's silly low valuation. JMHO Serafino has no plans to sell down here so takes advantage of it by buying back stock not being overly distressed by current price, realizing the stock will reflect its value in future. BTW Gran is also getting in near future 10 million oz of gold at Toroparu Gold Project.

Not only is Gran and Serafino buying the stock. I have increased my position by 50% in last few weeks and have been in it since $1 in 2016.

Cheers