SolGold, the developer of a world-class copper-gold project in Northern Ecuador, has announced that it has signed off a significant contract for its flagship Cascabel Project that covers an area of approximately 50 square kilometres located in Imbabura province.
It is a mineral exploration and development company, that explores for and develops mineral properties in Ecuador, Australia, Chile, and Solomon Islands, primarily exploring for copper, gold, silver, and molybdenum deposits.
The Important EC Contract
The Exploitation Contract establishes the legal and financial terms and conditions for the development of the Cascabel Project by the Brisbane, Australia-based £272m capitalised SolGold (Lon and TSX: SOLG).
It covers key contract items such as: not less than a 50% share of the benefits going to the Ecuador Government; that there will be a renewable 33-year contract for copper, gold and silver production; that SolGold will make a total of $75m royalty payments, of which $25m is an advance sum; the Government Royalty will be on net smelter revenues ranging from 3%-8% based on mineral and price; a mechanism to balance out the effects of any changes in Ecuador fiscal policy, taxes, laws and other regulations; investor protection rights; and importantly that it develops the autonomy and freedom of the company to make its commercial decisions.
SolGold shares, which were trading at 19.20p this time last year, before easing back to 6.02p in early March this year, are currently just 9.07p.