Mineral resources company Inca One Gold has completed the definitive purchase agreement to acquire full ownership of Anthem United, which owns 90.14% interest in the 350 t/d Koricancha ore processing facility, in Peru, from miner Equinox Gold.

Koricancha is located about 50 km from Inca One’s ore processing facility and should give rise to cost synergies and provide a platform for growth.

Koricancha is a custom-built, fully operational, industrial gold ore processing facility, featuring a carbon-in-leach gold circuit, and situated in the Arequipa region.

It is built out and permitted for 350 t/d and has been operating at an average of approximately 135 t/d since January this year. It has been servicing the small-scale mining sector of Peru for three years and has a stockpile of material currently being processed.

The deal will establish Inca One as the leader for publicly listed gold processing companies in Peru, with 450 t/d permitted capacity.

Further highlights of the acquisition for Inca One shareholders include an additional 200 t/d to 250 t/d of available capacity for future growth. With economies-of-scale opportunities with two plants in the nearby proxi mity, the purchase allows for a combined working capital of about $5-million. Equinox will also become a new significant shareholder.

The total purchase price for the acquisition was about C$16.3-million.

The closing of this acquisition of the producing Koricancha mill is “a strategic and transformative acquisition for Inca One”, says Inca One Gold president and CEO Edward Kelly.

It instantly increases our footprint in Peru and allows us to grow our sales and earnings without significant and time-consuming capital spending and delays in permitting,” he states.

Equinox CEO Christian Milau notes that “combining Koricancha with the operations of Inca One achieves operating efficiencies and a meaningful scale in an industry characterised by smaller, single-asset operations, and provides a strong foundation for Inca One to build an industry leader in the Peruvian gold milling space”.