Dorato soars on Peruvian acquisition plans (January 07, 2008)

Vancouver — Dorato Resources (DRI.H-V, DRIFF-O) has emerged from a trading halt with plans to acquire a major land package in northern Peru, that straddles the border with Ecuador.

The strategic mineral concessions, close to several major discoveries on the Ecuadorian portion of the Cordillera del Condor gold-copper belt, are relatively unexplored. The region was closed to exploration and mining until recently.

Dorato says its portion of the mineralized belt in Peru shares similar geology, structural setting and extensions to known trends across the border. The area hosts an abundance of placer gold occurrences, but has essentially seen no drilling to test potential source rock.

In Ecuador, the belt hosts Corriente Resources’ (CTQ-T, ETQ-X) Mirador deposit, with 431 million measured and indicated tonnes at 0.61% copper and 0.2 gram gold per tonne, Aurelian Resources’ (ARU-T, AUREF-O) Fruta del Norte discovery, with an inferred resource of 58.9 million tonnes at 7.23 grams gold (13.7 million contained ounces gold) and Ecometals’ (EML-V, ECOMF-O) Condor (Chinapintza) project, where drilling has intersected wide intervals of significant gold mineralization.

Dorato has four option agreements covering the roughly 55 by 10-km swath of ground (comprising the Vicmarama, Maqravilla, Lahaina 1 and Lahaina 2 properties) that could see the reactivated junior issue up to 7.15 million shares and pay out US$1.22 million.

The company also has an agreement to purchase Compania Minera Afrodita, a private Peruvian company, for 3 million shares and US$8 million over three years. Afrodita owns mining concessions in the area of the claims being acquired by Dorato.

The transaction means a change of business to the mining sector, and Dorado will have to fulfill TSX Venture Exchange requirements, including shareholder approval, completion of a filing statement, and National Instrument 43-101-compliant technical reports.

Dorato also plans a non-brokered private placement of up to $10.2 million — comprised of up to 17 million shares at 60 apiece — to fund its planned acquisition and exploration programs.

After being halted in mid-October at 67 per share, the company saw its shares climb to a high of $2 before closing the day up 78 at $1.45 per share.