Business
Norsemont Mining Exercises Final Option to Increase Control of Constancia to 100%
Shares Issued and Outstanding: 38,477,878 TSX: NOM BVL: NOM
About this update from Norsemont Mining Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"\n\n\n\nShares Issued and Outstanding: 38,477,878\n\n\nTSX: NOM\n\n\nBVL: NOM\n\n\nTORONTO, ON and LIMA, Peru Jan. 30 /CNW/ - Norsemont Mining Inc. ("the\nCompany") (TSX: NOM, BVL: NOM) today announced that the Company has exercised\nthe final Rio Tinto option thereby clearing the way to increase its ownership\nover the Constancia copper/molybdenum/silver project to 100 percent.\n\n\nThe Constancia Project is located in southern Peru and has a 43-101\ncompliant indicated resource of 70M tonnes (0.8 Billion lbs Cu) and an\ninferred resource of 250M tonnes (2.8 Billion lbs Cu). Infill drilling to\nimprove confidence in the current resource is nearing completion following\nwhich seven drill rigs will commence step-out drilling designed to increase\nthe global project resource.\n\n\nNorsemont entered into an option agreement with Rio Tinto in 2005 whereby\nthe Company could acquire Rio Tinto's 70 percent interest in the Constancia\nProject through a series of cash payments, share issuances and project\nexpenditures. The remaining 30 percent interest in Constancia was held by\nMitsui and acquired by Norsemont in October 2007.\n\n\nIn November 2007 Norsemont met the requirements to exercise the initial\n51 percent Rio Tinto option thereby taking the Company's interest in\nConstancia to 81 percent. Following the exercise of the initial option, Rio\nTinto had 60 days within which to decide whether to claw back a 17 percent\ninterest in Constancia. The Company has been advised by Rio Tinto that as\nConstancia's current resource does not meet their size criteria it is not\nexercising its claw-back right. Norsemont has now advised Rio Tinto that the\nCompany will be exercising the final option to acquire the remaining 19\npercent interest in Constancia, which will take the Company's interest to 100\npercent.\n\n\nCommenting, Norsemont CEO Patrick Evans said: "Acquisition of an\nundivided 100 percent interest in the Constancia project represents a\nsignificant milestone for Norsemont. Constancia is a large and robust project\nwith the capacity to produce in excess of 90,000 tonnes of copper per annum.\nThe copper concentrate that will be produced at Constancia has not been\ncommitted to any off-take. The recently completed Constancia scoping study\nindicates that the project has a net present value of $530M and an internal\nr...