Empress Royalty Corp (TSX-V:EMPR, OTCQB:EMPYF) announced that the Manica gold mine in Mozambique has successfully completed its first gold pour.
Empress owns a 3.375% gold royalty on the Manica gold mine, which is operated by Mutapa Mining & Processing (MMP) LDA. Now that the first gold has been poured, MMP expects production to begin by the end of the year.
"The first gold pour at Manica is very exciting and a further example of Empress delivering on our strategy as another asset reaches production within 15 months of investment,” CEO Alexandra Woodyer Sherron said in a statement. “With this development, Empress will have three cash-flowing investments in the portfolio which are projected to generate significant revenue in the coming years."
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Empress has executed an agreement creating a royalty on gold sales from Manica for an investment of US$3M. Payments to Empress are based on 3.375% of the revenues generated from the sale of gold from the project until a total of 95,000 ounces of gold have been sold. After that, the percentage reduces to 1.125% and continues in perpetuity.
"We have demonstrated that our structured business model of wealth creation generates significantly higher returns on investment, and these will provide a solid platform whilst we expand the portfolio with more value-focused assets,” Sherron said.
The Manica mine is located in the Odzi-Mutare-Manica Greenstone Belt of Mozambique and comprises of several deposits on Xtract Resources PLC (LSE:XTR)'s mining concession license. MMP and Xtract have entered into a collaboration and profit-share arrangement whereby MMP will build, finance and operate a carbon-in-leach plant to process ore mined from Xtract's concession, the company said.
Empress is a global royalty and streaming creation company providing investors with a diversified portfolio of gold and silver investments. Since listing in December 2020, Empress has built a portfolio of 17 precious metal investments and is actively investing in mining companies with development and production stage projects who require additional non-dilutive capital.
Contact Andrew Kessel at andrew.kessel@proactiveinvestors.com
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