Golden Minerals Announces Hecla Lease Extension And Santa Maria NI 43-101 Filing Details

Golden Minerals Company (NYSE MKT and TSX: AUMN) (“Golden Minerals”, “Golden” or “the Company”) announces that Minera Hecla S.A. de C.V. (“Hecla”) has exercised its right to extend the lease of Golden’s oxide mill in Durango State, Mexico for an additional 18 months, through December 31, 2018. Additionally, Golden announces its filing of the National Instrument 43-101 (“NI 43-101”) compliant mineral resource estimate for the Santa Maria silver and gold project, under slightly amended terms from those announced in February 2017.
As quoted in the press release:

Golden leased its then-vacant oxide mill to Minera Hecla S.A. de C.V., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hecla Mining Company, in July 2015 for an initial period of 18 months. The lease agreement contained several lease extension options, and in the third quarter 2016 the lease was extended through June 2017. The 2016 extension included an agreement under which Hecla would construct, at its cost, certain tailings expansion facilities to accommodate Hecla’s increased use of tailings capacity. On March 24, 2017, Golden was notified of Hecla’s exercise of its option to extend the lease term through December 31, 2018. Tailings expansion work began earlier this year and is expected to be completed in April 2017. This lease has provided a source of revenue to the Company during a period in which Golden has not had active mining operations at its own properties. The lease provided approximately $4.4 million in net cash flow to the Company in 2016, and at Hecla’s anticipated average 400 tonnes per day production rate, Golden anticipates net cash of approximately $0.4 million per month or $4.8 million annually, in 2017.

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Source: www.goldenminerals.com