Thursday, August 6, 2009

Eldorado Gold Now Wholly Owns Brazil Iron Ore Project

Vancouver-based Eldorado Gold has acquired the 25% that it did not own in the Vila Nova iron-ore project, in Brazil, from local private company Mineracao Amapari SA, the Canadian firm announced on Wednesday.

In exchange, Amapari will receive a net profit interest royalty of 10%, plus a sliding scale royalty based on the operating margin on the project.

The agreement “simplifies and consolidates the ownership structure of Vila Nova without any additional upfront cost for Eldorado,” said CEO Paul Wright.

The project, which was completed and commissioned in the first half of this year, was put on care-and-maintenance immediately afterwards, because of the weak market for iron ore.

“The Vila Nova iron-ore project is not a core asset for Eldorado, but we look forward to putting the project in to commercial production once prices of iron-ore recover to satisfactory levels,” Wright said in a statement.

The asset contains proven and probable reserves of 9,2-million tons of ore at a grade of 61% iron, plus an inferred resource of two-million tons at 61,2% iron.

Eldorado produces gold from mines in China and Turkey, and has development projects in Turkey and Greece.

Source: Mining Weekly

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