Month: March 2017

Primero Mining Corp. announced today that, further to its news release dated March 24, 2017, it has closed the extension of the maturity of its $75 million revolving credit facility with its syndicate of lenders. The RCF will now mature on November 23, 2017 and will exclude financial covenants until the extended maturity date. The RCF continues to be secured by a charge over substantially all of the Company’s assets and is now guaranteed by Silver Wheaton for a fee of $2.6 million payable at maturity. Today, Primero drew down $10 million from the RCF, which now has $60 million drawn. An additional $15 million remains available for drawdown, subject to Silver Wheaton’s consent, unless the proceeds are used solely in connection with the restart of the San Dimas operations.

The gross proceeds of the Private Placement will be used to advance exploration activities and some minor working capital and general corporate expenses. The exploration activities to include mechanical trenching and construction of access to facilitate drilling plus some in-fill mapping and sampling on the recently announced PIMA geochemical sampling program.

“The Company had a stronger year in 2016, generating increased cash flow in the second half of the year due to higher silver and base metal prices, and our ongoing focus on cost management,” said Darren Blasutti, President and CEO. “We expect to continue to create positive operating cash flow until the San Rafael Project begins commercial production, which is expected to increase the Company’s revenue and cash flow while significantly decreasing operating costs in late 2017 and beyond. San Rafael, coupled with our acquisition of the San Felipe Project and strategic partnership with Glencore, will drive accretive future growth for our shareholders.

David Coburn, CEO of Gainey Capital, commented, “Gainey will continue to push forward with our exploration program, drilling our most prospective identified targets. Our geological team has recently completed a comprehensive onsite technical review and is expecting to establish several new targets for a Phase 2 Drill program shortly. We expect to provide more specifics on both the Phase 2 exploration and additional targets as soon as they become available.”

Mark Brennan, President and CEO of Sierra Metals commented “2016 has been a transformational year for Sierra and the stage has been set for exceptional growth following a very successful operational improvements program and the Esperanza discovery at the Yauricocha Mine, development of new areas for higher grade ore at Bolivar and the reinterpretation of geology at the Cusi Mine. In its operations, the Company also reported record tonnage throughput and realized remarkable increases in revenue, cash flows and adjusted EBITDA.”

George Paspalas, President and CEO, commented, “2016 was a truly significant and outstanding year for MAG. The company is well funded. We continue to discover high potential mineralization beneath the Valdecañas Bonanza Zone, which remains open, and we now have an alternative project scope that enhances the value of the project upon start-up. We continue a strong working relationship with Fresnillo as we head towards production, and are very excited about the strategy to explore some of the greenfield exploration targets on the Juanicipio project.”

Sierra Metals Inc. announces that Mark Brennan has tendered his resignation as President and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Brennan will continue in his current role for a period of 30 days to facilitate the implementation of an orderly succession plan. Further details in this regard will be announced in due course.