Echo, the Latin America focused natural resources company, has announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Echo Natural Resources Limited, has entered into a shareholders joint venture agreement regarding a 50:50 joint venture company in Peru with the founding partners of Boku Resources SAC.
Echo will participate in the interests of Boku, being gold and silver mining and the cleaning of known tailings deposits containing gold and silver in Peru.Through Boku, Echo has secured an opportunity to scale operations in Peru, with experienced local partners, producing gold and silver through primary mining and tailings cleaning, owning 50% of the production and potential resources.HighlightsTesoro gold concessionBoku intends to establish formalised artisanal and small mining (ASM) operations on its 100% held Tesoro Gold concession, southern Peru.Early cash flow generation – Phase I development targeting mining revenues by 4Q24 from an initial 147 oz/month of gold production (estimated) through an existing plant, operated by a third party.Tesoro has quartz-gold veins hosted in intrusive rocks with grades of 5 – 15 g/t Au with certain other zones of >30 g/t Au.Internal estimates suggest approximately 150 000 t with an average grade of 15 g/t Au for 73 000 oz Au.Tailings cleaningBoku also aims to build a material resource base of gold and silver rich tailings, targeting an internal estimate of 4.9 million t for a contained estimate of 243 000 oz AuEq across an initial seven tailings dumps in northern Peru.Strategy to process the tailings dumps, extracting gold/silver while remediating the land, and bringing the tailings into legislative compliance.A process to bring the internal estimates to compliance with accepted international resource standards is to be undertaken.Stephen Birrell, Chief Executive Officer of Echo, commented:“Through our Latin American networks, we have identified, pursued, and secured a transformational opportunity to scale a joint venture operation producing gold and silver through primary mining and tailings cleaning.Echo is targeting early cash flow this year from Tesoro followed by building a material resource base, acquiring gold and silver rich tailings dumps. We expect the Company to be generating steady cashflow by mid next year from both mining and tailings cleaning operations.We know that the Company’s shareholders have suffered highly unpalatable value diminution from legacy projects over the years, so it is pleasing to be able to deliver unique access to the Peruvian precious metals sector with potential near-term cash flow at a time when precious metals prices and forecasts are running at an all-time high. We have an opportunity to grow a Latin America focused resources business of considerable scale. We see the concept of treating isolated remnant resource and cleaning of tailings as a scalable objective. The tailings, especially, are at surface and are accessible for establishing a quick, robust resource at minimal cost.”
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