Wheaton Precious Metals has signed a precious metal purchase agreement with Capstone Mining pertaining to the Santo Domingo project in the Atacama Region, Chile.
Chile’s only fully permitted greenfield project, the Santo Domingo copper-iron-gold project is located about 50km southwest of Codelco’s El Salvador copper mine and 130km north-northeast of Copiapó, near the town of Diego de Almagro in Region III, Chile.
Wheaton Precious Metals’ subsidiary Wheaton Precious Metals International will purchase 100% of the payable gold production until 285 thousand ounces have been delivered from the mine.
Thereafter, the firm will receive 67% of payable gold production for the life of the mine.
Wheaton will provide an upfront deposit of $30m to Capstone. The balance of the $290m consideration will be paid during the development and construction of the Santo Domingo Project.
Wheaton president and CEO Randy Smallwood said: “Santo Domingo is an exceptional project that provides Wheaton with an additional near-term growth opportunity. The project is forecast to be a first-quartile copper producer with a long mine life, making it an ideal fit for Wheaton’s existing high-quality portfolio.
“We are very excited to further build our partnership with Capstone and look forward to seeing Santo Domingo developed into a top-tier copper mine.”
Separately, Capstone has signed an agreement with Korea Chile Mining – a unit of Korea Resources (collectively KORES) to buy KORES’ 30% ownership stake in the Santo Domingo project in Region III, Chile, for $120m.