Rio2 (TSXV: RIO; US-OTC: RIOFF) shares traded as much as 11¢ or 17.7% higher today after it said it’s received the final permits needed to begin construction at its Fenix gold project in Chile.
The stock was up 5¢, or 8.1%, near the end of the day.
The company plans to start construction in November, with financing talks for US$110 million of the US$235-million project cost ongoing.
It’s already spent US$29 million on preconstruction activities and has raised US$50-million via a gold stream with Wheaton Precious Metals.
The permits cover mining methods, processing plant, waste dumps and stockpiles, and the closure plan.
The mine, located in the Maricunga gold belt in the Atacama region, is expected to produce 1.3 million oz. gold over 17 years. Raymond James mining analyst Craig Stanley has an ‘outperform’ rating on Rio2 and models first production at Fenix in early 2026.
Rio2 had hit permitting snags in the past, when environmental authorities rejected its environmental impact assessment in 2022, saying the company didn’t provide enough information on how it planned to project wildlife including chinchillas. It was approved in late 2023,
Fenix will be a large, gold oxide heap leach based on a measured and indicated resource of 398.2 million tonnes at a grade of 0.38 gram gold per tonne and containing almost 4.8 million oz. of gold. The inferred resource is 90.8 million tonnes at 0.33 gram gold for 959,000 oz.
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