Silvercorp’s C$200m acquisition of Adventus stalls
The proposed C$200-million acquisition of Ecuador-focused copper and gold explorer Adventus Mining by Canadian mining company Silvercorp Metals has hit a snag, the companies disclosed on Friday.
Announced in April as an all-share offer targeting TSX-V-listed Adventus Mining, the deal was poised to pivot Silvercorp, traditionally focused on China, into the South American market.
Central to the acquisition is Adventus’ El Domo project. However, litigation challenging the environmental licence for the copper project has emerged as a potential hurdle to completing the deal.
Silvercorp asserts that litigation, aimed at voiding the environmental licence, constitutes a “material adverse effect”, thereby failing to fulfill a condition outlined in an arrangement agreement.
Last week, Silvercorp notified Adventus that it was not prepared to close the arrangement as planned on July 5. Nevertheless, the company indicated willingness to engage in discussions to extend the deadline for closing the deal beyond July 31.
In a separate statement, Adventus expressed disagreement with Silvercorp’s interpretation that the litigation, announced last month, represented an unmet condition for closing.
Adventus stressed that it would safeguard the interests of its security holders and indicated that it would pursue necessary measures to uphold the arrangement.
“While Adventus may continue to have discussions with Silvercorp about the completion of the arrangement, Adventus reserves all of its rights in the event that Silvercorp fails to close the arrangement as required by the arrangement agreement, including by the ‘outside date’ under the agreement of July 31,” said Adventus.
The transaction has already gained shareholder approval and was cleared by the Ontario Superior Court on July 2.
Adventus is advancing the majority-owned Curipamba copper/gold project, which has a completed feasibility study on the shallow and high-grade El Domo deposit. With the merger with Luminex Resources, Adventus owns the Condor gold project and a large exploration project portfolio that spans over 135 000 ha – one of the largest holdings in Ecuador.
According to a December 2021 feasibility study, El Domo will produce an average of 10 463 t/y of copper and 21 390 t/y copper-equivalent over its ten-year mine life at a C1 production cash cost of $1.14/lb and an all-in sustaining cost of $1.26/lb copper-equivalent. The study estimates a capital cost requirement of $248-million.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation