Solitario Receives CDN $600,000 for its Royalties and Provides Update on Florida Canyon Activities
January 22, 2019
DENVER–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Solitario Zinc Corp. (“Solitario”) (NYSE American: XPL; TSX: SLR)
is pleased to announce that it has sold two royalties and an option to
purchase a third royalty to SilverStream SEZC (“SilverStream”), a
private Cayman Island royalty and streaming company. Solitario will
receive CDN $250,000 in cash and CDN $350,000 in a convertible note as
payment for the royalties and option. The royalties cover the
125,000-acre polymetallic Pedra Branca palladium, platinum, gold,
nickel, cobalt and chrome project in Brazil and Solitario’s 3,880-acre
Mexico royalty portfolio. The purchase option covers Solitario’s
16,500-acre Montana royalty portfolio.
Solitario’s Royalty Properties
The centerpiece royalty is the 1% NSR royalty on the Pedra Branca
project owned by Jangada Mines, a London-based company that is actively
advancing the project. The property has a JORC compliant resource. The
Montana royalties cover high-potential geologic terrain for copper-gold
mineralization and the Mexico royalties include prospective areas for
precious and base metal mineralization in historic mining districts of
Mexico.
| Solitario Royalty Properties | ||||||||||||
|
Property Name/
Manager |
Size-Acres /
Properties |
Commodity | NSR-Royalty | Resource | ||||||||
|
Pedra Branca
Jangada Mines |
125,000
1 property |
Platinum-palladium- |
1% | Yes-JORC compliant | ||||||||
|
Montana
Private Party |
16,500
11 properties |
Au, Cu | 1.5% | None | ||||||||
|
Mexico
Private Party |
3,880
7 properties |
Ag-Pb-Zn-Au | 1% | None | ||||||||
The CDN $350,000 convertible note has a one-year term with a 5% per
annum simple interest rate. The note is convertible into SilverStream
stock should SilverStream complete an IPO before the end of the one-year
term.
Chris Herald, President and Chief Executive Officer of Solitario,
commented, “These royalty properties represented non-core assets of
Solitario. Selling these royalties to SilverStream allowed Solitario to
monetize their value and provide Solitario equity exposure to a much
broader portfolio of royalty and streaming properties currently held by
SilverStream.”
Kyle Floyd, Chief Executive Officer of SilverStream, added, “We are
pleased to partner with Solitario in delivering a successful outcome to
its shareholders; while allowing SilverStream to grow its royalty and
streaming interests by acquiring a very promising royalty portfolio.”
Florida Canyon Update
Soliltario’s partner, Nexa Resources ((“Nexa”) NYSE: NEXA; TSX: NEXA)
initiated drilling with two core rigs at Florida Canyon in early
November. This first phase of drilling ended in late-December upon the
onset of the rainy season in the project area when helicopter supported
drilling is no longer operationally efficient. Nexa is planning on
resuming drilling at the end of the rainy season, expected sometime in
April. At that time, Nexa plans to accelerate drilling operations
utilizing four core rigs operating simultaneously to complete the
remaining 37 drill holes. Four holes have been completed to planned
target depth and a fifth hole was abandoned due to technical drilling
problems. Total meterage completed was 2,203 meters. All holes were
located at the northeastern margin of the previous drilling footprint in
the Karen Milagros zone. Assays are expected sometime in February.
Chris Herald, President and Chief Executive Officer of Solitario,
commented, “We appreciate Nexa’s effort to begin the drilling program
prior to the rainy season, and are pleased with the progress made to
date. We look forward to completion of the entire program during 2019.
We are also extremely pleased that Nexa is accelerating the drilling
program by adding drill rigs when operations resume in the spring.”
About Solitario
Solitario is an emerging zinc exploration and development company traded
on the NYSE American (“XPL”) and on the Toronto Stock Exchange (“SLR”).
Solitario holds 50% joint venture interest in the high-grade,
open-pitable Lik zinc deposit in Alaska and a 39% joint venture interest
(Nexa Resources holds the remaining 61% interest) on the high-grade
Florida Canyon zinc project in Peru. Solitario also holds a 7.6% equity
interest in Vendetta Mining. Solitario’s Management and Directors hold
approximately 9.3% (excluding options) of the Company’s 58.4 million
shares outstanding. Solitario’s cash balance and marketable securities
stand at approximately US$12.0 million. Additional information about
Solitario is available online at www.solitariozinc.com
About SilverStream
SilverStream is a strategic metals streaming and royalty business with
investments across Australasia, North and South America.
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward Looking
Information
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the
meaning of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933 and the U.S. Securities
Exchange Act of 1934, and as defined in the United States Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (and the equivalent under
Canadian securities laws), that are intended to be covered by the
safe harbor created by such sections. Forward-looking statements are
statements that are not historical fact. They are based on the beliefs,
estimates and opinions of the Company’s management on the date the
statements are made and address activities, events or developments that
Solitario expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future, and
are based on current expectations and assumptions. Forward-looking
statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Consequently,
there can be no assurances that such statements will prove to be
accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially
from those anticipated in such statements. Such forward-looking
statements include, without limitation, statements regarding the
Company’s expectation of the projected timing and outcome of engineering
studies; expectations regarding the receipt of all necessary permits and
approvals to implement a mining plan, if any, at Lik or Florida Canyon;
the potential for confirming, upgrading and expanding zinc, lead and
silver mineralized material; future operating and capital cost estimates
may indicate that the stated resources may not be economic; estimates of
zinc, lead and silver grades of resources provided are predicted and
actual mining grade could be substantially lower; estimates of recovery
rates for could be lower than estimated for establishing the cutoff
grade; and other statements that are not historical facts could
vary significantly from assumptions made in the PEA. Although
Solitario management believes that its expectations are based on
reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that these expectations
will prove correct. Important factors that could cause actual
results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking
statements include, among others, risks relating to risks that
Solitario’s and its joint venture partners’ exploration and property
advancement efforts will not be successful; risks relating to
fluctuations in the price of zinc, lead and silver; the inherently
hazardous nature of mining-related activities; uncertainties concerning
reserve and resource estimates; availability of outside contractors, and
other activities; uncertainties relating to obtaining approvals and
permits from governmental regulatory authorities; the possibility that
environmental laws and regulations will change over time and become even
more restrictive; and availability and timing of capital for financing
the Company’s exploration and development activities, including
uncertainty of being able to raise capital on favorable terms or at all;
as well as those factors discussed in Solitario’s filings with the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) including
Solitario’s latest Annual Report on Form 10-K and its other SEC filings
(and Canadian filings) including, without limitation, its latest
Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. The Company does not intend to publicly
update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new
information, future events, or otherwise, except as may be required
under applicable securities laws.
Contacts
Simon Cooper
Vice President – Corporate Development
(345)
815-3943
Kyle Floyd
Chief Executive Officer
(345) 815-3940