VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 17, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Panoro Minerals Ltd. (TSXV:PML) (Lima:PML) (Frankfurt:PZM) and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Panoro Trading (Cayman) Ltd. (“Panoro” or the “Company”) are pleased to announce that they have received the fifth Early Deposit payment of US$750,000 as part of the Precious Metals Purchase Agreement (the “Cotabambas Early Deposit Agreement”) with Wheaton Precious Metals International Ltd. (“WPMI”) (formerly Silver Wheaton (Caymans) Ltd.), a wholly owned subsidiary of Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (formerly Silver Wheaton Corp.) (TSX:WPM) (NYSE:WPM), in respect of the Cotabambas project located in Peru.
The principal terms of the Cotabambas Early Deposit Agreement are as described in the Company’s press release on March 21, 2016, whereby WPMI will pay Panoro upfront cash payments totalling US$140 million for 25% of the payable gold production and 100% of the payable silver production from the Company’s Cotabambas Project in Peru. In addition, WPMI will make production payments to Panoro of the lesser of the market price and US$450 per payable ounce of gold and US$5.90 per payable ounce of silver delivered to WPMI over the life of the Cotabambas Project.
Panoro is entitled to receive US$14 million spread over a period of up to 9 years as an early deposit with payments to be used to fund corporate expenses related to the Cotabambas Project. The Cotabambas Early Deposit Agreement includes provisions to accelerate these payments through WPMI’s matching, up to certain limits, any third party financing by Panoro targeted for exploration at the Cotabambas Project completed before the second anniversary of the Cotabambas Early Deposit Agreement. This acceleration could result in total early deposit payments of up to US$7 million being made to Panoro in the first two years of the agreement. The balance of the US$126 million, should WPMI elect to proceed with the Cotabambas Early Deposit Agreement, is payable in instalments during construction of the Cotabambas Project.
Together with this payment, the total advanced to date is US$5.5 million, including the accelerated tranche of US$2.0 million received in December 2016.
About Panoro
Panoro Minerals is a uniquely positioned Peru focused copper exploration and development Company. The Company is advancing its flagship project, Cotabambas Copper-Gold-Silver Project and its Antilla Copper-Molybdenum Projects located in the strategically important area of southern Peru. The company is well financed to expand, enhance and advance its projects in the region where infrastructure such as railway, roads, ports, water supply, power generation and transmission are readily available and expanding quickly. The region boasts the recent investment of over $US 15 billion into the construction or expansion of four large open pit copper mines.
