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Rio Silver
Investor Insight
Rio Silver’s value proposition leverages a wholly owned 4,300 hectares of mineral concessions in a historic Peruvian mining district, a management team holding a 29 percent stake and over two decades of local experience, extensive exploration data and promising historical drill results.
Overview
Rio Silver (TSXV:RYO) is a precious metals mining and exploration company with a focus on the acquisition, exploration and development of precious metals deposits in South America. The company is currently focused on advancing its 100 percent-owned Niñobamba silver-gold project in Peru. The company has decades of experience navigating the mining regulatory landscape of Peru and considers itself to be well-positioned for the coming mining cycle.
Rio Silver’s flagship Niñobamba property is located in the Department of Ayacucho about 330 kilometers southeast of Lima. The 4,300-hectare property is wholly owned by the company and the project is drill ready. The Niñobamba project partially comprises a 2,200 hectare property which was previously owned by Newmont Mining (NYSE:NEM) and Southern Peru Mining. The balance was held by AngloGold Ashanti and Bear Creek Mining but has since been strategically acquired and consolidated into Rio Silver’s property.
The Ninobamba project engulfs a collapsed caldera, an ancient volcano, where the Niñobamba North and South zones were mineralized in a hot spring environment within the wall rock of the caldera surrounded by areas that contain high-sulfidation mineralization with near surface silver and gold deposits modeled for Rio Silver using leapfrog 3D software. The neighbouring Jorimina deposit, 6.5 kilometers to the west, where Newmont spent more than US$7 million, concluded an internal, positive, preliminary economic assessment, detailing a predominantly gold-rich, low to mid-sulfidation deposit found in the floor structure of this collapsed caldera.
In 2025, Rio Silver and African Energy Metals (NEX:CUCO.H;FSE:BC2; WKN:A3DEJG) signed an option agreement granting African Energy Metals a 100 percent interest in the Niñobamba gold-silver project in Ayacucho, Peru. Additionally, Rio Silver also entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the high-grade Maria Norte polymetallic silver property from Peruvian Metals (TSXV:PER), located in the historic Huachocolpa Mining District in Huancavelica, Southern Peru.
The company’s management and advisory team is made up of experienced industry veterans, some with as many as 25 years of experience working in Peru. The team has an in-depth understanding of the regulatory processes associated with mining exploration in the country.
To date, Rio Silver and other historical operators have completed US$10 million in exploration expenditure on the Niñobamba property. The company has low overhead expenditure and strong alliances in Peru that are helping it achieve new initiatives for enhanced sustainability.
The company now holds a 3 percent net smelter return (NSR) royalty with guaranteed minimum payments from a recent property sale and these initiatives enable more exploration by helping Rio Silver with sustaining costs.
Company Highlights
- Rio Silver owns six mineral concessions covering 4,300 hectares of wholly-owned land in a historic Peruvian mining district.
- The property was historically surrounded by big-name miners (Newmont, Southern Peru Copper) and is now wholly owned by Rio Silver.
- Experienced management team with more than two decades of mining experience in Peru.
- Extensive trenching completed at the Niñobamba zone.
- The management team holds a 29 percent stake in the company.
- US$10 million in exploration expenditure completed to date by Rio and historical operators.
- All the historical data has been collected from previous owners.
- Historical drilling on the Niñobamba property intersected 130 meters of 2.55 oz/t silver and 72.3 meters of 1.19 g/t gold.
- New gold zone identified includes 56 meters at 98.9 g/t silver and 21.77 meters at 1.32 g/t gold, 102.46 g/t silver.
- Rio Silver and African Energy Metals signed an option agreement granting African Energy Metals a 100 percent interest in the Niñobamba gold-silver project in Ayacucho, Peru.
- Rio Silver has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the high-grade Maria Norte polymetallic silver property from Peruvian Metals. The property is located in the historic Huachocolpa Mining District in Huancavelica, Southern Peru.
Key Project
Niñobamba Silver Project, Peru
Located 330 kilometers southeast of Lima in the Department of Ayacucho, the Niñobamba property is 100 percent wholly owned by Rio Silver. The property includes six mineral concessions covering 4,300 hectares. The district has historically been mined by major international gold miners including Newmont Goldcorp and Southern Peru Mining.
The property was initially explored by AngloGold (JSE:ANG) in 2001. Anglo drilled five widely-spaced core holes totaling 861 meters focusing in an area of intense hydrothermal surface alteration. AngloGold’s drilling highlights included assay results of 87.0 grams per tonne (g/t) silver over a drilled interval of 130 meters starting from a depth of 9 meters reported from drill hole DDH-2 and 54.0 g/t silver over a drilled interval of 96 meters starting from 23 meters reported from the AN-04 drill hole.
Adjacent zones acquired from major miners
In 2016, Rio Silver consolidated its property by acquiring the surrounding 2,200 hectares of adjoining land from Newmont Mining and Southern Peru Copper. These included the 2,000 hectare Jorimina zone, which is located about 6.5 kilometers west of the Niñobamba and is believed to be part of the same high-sulfidation silver-gold system identified in the main Niñobamba zones. Along with the property came an extensive database of information including results and reports from an exploration program by the mining majors which encompassed 553 hectares. Newmont’s exploration included mapping, 2,147 rock samples and induced polarization geophysics. This historic exploration indicated a gold anomalous area of more than 700 meters by 1,000 meters as well as four strong chargeability anomalies coinciding with gold-silver in rock anomalies.
Newmont’s historic data includes samples of 17.4 meters of 3.06 g/t gold and 200 meters of 0.26 g/t gold. Historic exploration in the Jorimina zone conducted by Newmont in 2009 and 2010 shows highlights of 72.3 meters of 1.19 g/t gold starting at 53-meter depth.
In 2024, Rio Silver completed a surface access agreement with the local community for one year at the Jorimina project after an environmental impact study and community workshops were also completed to represent the final steps of the drill permitting application process.
Exploration and trenching results
To date, extensive trenching has been completed by Rio Silver on the Niñobamba property. In 2012, the company began conducting surface trenching in areas proximate to historical drilling locations. Exploration has focused primarily on the north and south zones of silver mineralization approximately 400 meters apart with variable thicknesses. Surface sampling near trenches in the north zone returned highlights of 1.32 g/t gold and 102.46 g/t silver. Sampling near trenches in the south zone returned highlights of 42.62 meters of 130.98 g/t silver. Additional highlights can be found on Rio Silver’s website.Management Team
Chris Verrico - President, CEO, and Director
Chris Verrico has extensive experience with rural-remote infrastructure construction and contract mining throughout BC, the Yukon, Alaska and Nunavut. He has been a director for a dozen startup junior mining companies, most of which have become public companies. Verrico has managed numerous exploration projects in North America, Mexico and throughout western South America. He is currently the director of Juggernaught Exploration.
Steve Brunelle - Chairman
Steve Brunelle is the former officer and director of Corner Bay Silver, which was acquired by Pan American Silver. He has 35 years of experience in mineral exploration throughout the Americas and is currently an Officer and Director for several TSXV companies.
Jeffrey J Reeder - Advisor
Jeffrey J Reeder is a professional geologist with more than two decades of experience working in Peru. Reeder possesses an in-depth understanding of the rules, practices, and processes involved in conducting mining and exploration in the country and is currently the president of Peruvian Metals which owns a custom toll milling facility in northern Peru.
Jim McCrea – Adviser
Jim McCrea has more than 30 years’ experience in exploration, mining geology and mineral resource estimation. He worked for junior mining/exploration companies and engineering companies SRK and Snowden. His geological expertise ranges from technical review and due diligence to resource estimation and feasibility studies. McCrea has experience in a range of commodities, but primarily gold, silver and copper, with particular focus on North and South America. He has performed ore body modeling and resource estimation for the successfully targeted takeover company Cumberland Resources by Agnico-Eagle Mines. More recently, McCrea completed many mineral resource estimations underpinning acquisitions such as Minera San Cristóbal S.A. of Bolivia, Arena Minerals and Montan Mining, to mention a few.
Richard Mazur - Director
Richard Mazur is the co-founder and past managing director of RLG International, operating in over 30 countries worldwide with more than 300 employees.
Jeffrey J. Reeder - Advisor
Jeffrey J. Reeder, P. Geo., holds a B.Sc. (Honours) in Geology from the University of Alberta and has been a registered professional geologist with the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia since 1992. With 25 years of experience working in Peru and fluency in Spanish, Mr. Reeder has played a key role in identifying and acquiring significant mineral projects, including the Aguila Copper-Moly deposit—now being developed by Mexican mining giant Industrias Peñoles—and the Pinaya Copper-Gold project, currently under exploration by Kaizen Discovery.
Reeder is the president and CEO of Peruvian Metals, which operates a successful and expanding toll milling plant in northern Peru. Under his leadership, the company is also developing nearby mines to enhance the supply of ore to its growing mineral processing facility.
Eric H. Hinton - Advisor
Eric Hinton holds degrees from Haileybury School of Mines, Queen’s University, and Laurentian University and is a registered professional engineer in Ontario and Manitoba. A Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy, and Petroleum, he is also designated as a Qualified Person (QP) in underground mining by the Mining and Metallurgical Society of America and is recognized as a QP under National Instrument 43-101.
Christopher Hopton - CFO and Advisor
Christopher Hopton is a seasoned financial management professional with 25 years of experience. He has led financial operations for resource and biotech companies across Canada and South America. Since 2019, Hopton has served as chief financial officer (CFO) of the company, bringing expertise in financial planning, accounting policy, and business process optimization. In addition to his current role as CFO at Rio Silver, Hopton previously served as CFO of Central Resources, a junior mineral exploration company. He also played a key role in the successful restructuring of 360 Networks, a network communications firm, which ultimately led to its strategic acquisition by Bell Canada.
Leveraging 25 years of mining experience in Peru
Second LiDAR interpretation identifies additional compelling targets at GDM’s Devils Mountain Gold Project
Highlights:
- GDM purchased the Gympie 2023 LiDAR dataset from the QLD Government, totalling 80 km2, covering EPM 26135, which lies directly SE of the historical gold mining town of Kilkivan.
- A comprehensive LiDAR interpretation was undertaken by specialists GeoCloud Analytics. The interpretation indicated a total of 486 potential historical mine workings, including 40 adits, 16 shafts and 430 other prospecting pits. Many of the old workings were not previously known to GDM.
- The new LiDAR results, combined with previous exploration data has significantly enhanced GDM's dataset, used to identify and prioritise gold bearing targets for further follow-up exploration work.
Chief Executive Officer, Justin Haines, commented:
“This second LiDAR dataset for Devils Mountain has allowed GDM to get a more accurate picture of all of the historical gold mining at Kilkivan prospects area. Shafts and adits are good indicators of the presence of significant gold and base metal mineralisation, because of the effort invested in producing those old excavations. The LiDAR results confirm GDM’s strategy of targeting areas of abundant historical workings and applying modern exploration technologies to those targets”.
Devils Mountain Project
GDM’s Devils Mountain Project comprises 5 x EPMs (17685, 26062, 26135, 26709, 28438) located ~30 km northwest of Gympie (see Figure 1). The Project lies in the Palaeozoic Gympie and Wandilla Provinces of the New England Orogen in southeast Queensland.
Devils Mountain is highly prospective for gold and is host to an abundance of mineral occurrences. In addition to gold, the area contains occurrences of copper, silver, lead, zinc, tungsten and mercury, as well as a number of manganese deposits (see Figure 2). It’s geological setting has many similarities to the nearby Gympie goldfield.
Figure 1: Devils Mountain Gold Project Location Map
Figure 2: Devils Mountain Project Geology and known historical mining prospects
LiDAR Survey Data
LiDAR specialists GeoCloud Analytics purchased part of the Gympie 2023 LiDAR dataset from the QLD Government on behalf of GDM, over an 80 km2 area in the western part of the Devils Mountain Project, covering EPM 26135. The resolution of the raw data is 1 m. GeoCloud Analytics reprocessed the point cloud data to yield a 50cm resolution bare earth Digital Terrain Model (DTM).
The LiDAR survey was flown in 2023 with a minimum average density of 10.5 points per square metre with an average flying height of 1933m above ground level. Details of the survey are provided in the JORC Table 1, see Appendix 1.
A number of new LiDAR images were generated by GeoCloud Analytics in order to extract more information about the project. The enhanced 3D datasets and 2D images produced have facilitated detailed interpretations, allowing the identification of historical mine workings, prospecting pits, geological structures, access tracks and other surface features such as drill pads.
Click here for the full ASX Release
This article includes content from Great Divide Mining, licensed for the purpose of publishing on Investing News Australia. This article does not constitute financial product advice. It is your responsibility to perform proper due diligence before acting upon any information provided here. Please refer to our full disclaimer here.
Gidji Drilling Delivers More Gold Results
Miramar’s 80%-owned Gidji JV Project (“Gidji” or “the Project) is located approximately 15 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie and surrounded by multiple gold mining and processing operations, including Northern Star Resources Limited’s Kalgoorlie gold operations (Figure 1).
Miramar’s Executive Chairman, Mr Allan Kelly, said the first results from the current programme confirmed and extended the extensive supergene gold footprint discovered in previous drilling.
“The new results increase the footprint of the high-priority Blackfriars target, which shares several similarities to the multi-million-ounce Paddington gold deposit along strike to the north, including its location at the contact between the Boorara Shear Zone and the Black Flag Beds,” he added.
“This is the first systematic drilling at Gidji after a break of almost 3 years whilst, at the same time, the Australian dollar gold price has risen from $2,500/oz to well over $5,000/oz,” Mr Kelly said.
Current and previous drilling has outlined an extensive area of flat-lying supergene gold across multiple targets at Gidji, despite the stripped weathering profile under the Gidji Paleochannel.
The current drilling programme consists of approximately 180 aircore holes and aims to further refine bedrock drill targets under the younger transported paleochannel sediments.
Drilling commenced before Easter, was suspended due to heavy rainfall and recommenced on 6 May.
Figure 1. Gidji JV Project (yellow outline) and Boorara Shear Zone(white) in relation to Kalgoorlie.
Figure 2. New aircore drilling results (squares) in relation to previous drilling (circles).
Table 1. Significant drill results from the first 34 aircore holes at Gidji JV.Note: results reported above 0.25g/t Au lower cutoff
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This article includes content from Miramar Resources Limited, licensed for the purpose of publishing on Investing News Australia. This article does not constitute financial product advice. It is your responsibility to perform proper due diligence before acting upon any information provided here. Please refer to our full disclaimer here.
Asra to Secure 100% Ownership of Mt Cutmore at Leonora North Gold Project
Highlights
- Binding Term Sheet executed to acquire the remaining 49% of the Mt Cutmore prospects located at the Mt Stirling Leonora North Project subject to conditions, delivering 100% ownership upon completion.
- Consolidation of ownership aligns with Asra’s strategic focus to unlock further value within the Leonora Gold Project.
- Acquisition will strengthen Asra’s position in the renowned Leonora gold district, proximal to major operating mines and infrastructure.
The Project is situated in the Eastern Goldfields Super terrane of the Yilgarn Craton, where the area is known for orogenic gold deposits. The Project has a JORC (2012) Mineral Resource Estimate totalling 152,000 oz at 1.7g/t Au and is located within close proximity to significant gold mines, including Vault Minerals' 6Mtpa Au King of the Hills mine and Genesis Minerals' 2Moz Leonora and Kookynie operations.1
Asra Minerals Chief Executive Officer, Paul Stephen:
“Securing 100% of the Mt Cutmore prospects within the Project will be a pivotal step for Asra. This consolidation will enhance our strategic footprint in a highly prospective and active gold region.
Following the recently announced raise and with drilling permits in hand, we will be well placed to commence drilling the compelling, high-priority targets. This transaction will streamline our portfolio and provide a clear pathway to unlock value for our shareholders through focused exploration in one of WA’s premier gold districts.”
The Transaction consideration comprises of $200,000 cash and the issue of 75,000,000 fully paid ordinary shares in Asra at a deemed issue price of $0.002 per share (“Shares”) upon satisfaction of the conditions precedent of the Agreement (refer to the summary of the Agreement below for further details). The issue of the Shares is subject to shareholder approval under ASX Listing Rule 7.1, which Asra intends to seek at its upcoming annual general meeting, scheduled to be held in late May 2025.
Figure 1. Mt Stirling Leonora North
Mt Stirling Leonora North Project
The Mt Stirling Leonora North Project is strategically located approximately 40km northeast of Leonora within Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields. This region is renowned for hosting numerous multi-million-ounce orogenic gold deposits and significant mining operations.
The Project is situated just 5km from Vault Minerals’ (ASX:VAU) major 6Moz King of the Hills mine and its recently expanded processing hub, which is the largest in the Leonora district. It is also proximal to Genesis Minerals’ (ASX:GMD) extensive 2Moz Leonora operations. The Project currently hosts a JORC (2012) Mineral Resource Estimate totalling 152,000 oz at 1.7g/t Au. This Mineral Resource Estimate provides a valuable foundation for the Project and future exploration efforts aimed at expansion.
Click here for the full ASX Release
This article includes content from Asra Minerals Limited, licensed for the purpose of publishing on Investing News Australia. This article does not constitute financial product advice. It is your responsibility to perform proper due diligence before acting upon any information provided here. Please refer to our full disclaimer here.
Rio Silver Investor Kit
- Corporate info
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- Growth strategies
- Upcoming projects