Vannessa releases details of Las Cristinas deal (July 20, 2001)

Junior Vannessa Ventures (VVV-V) purchased a 95% interest in the Las Cristinas gold project in Venezuela for a “nominal” amount of cash and the assumption of the project debt owed to vendor Placer Dome (PDG-T).

Placer sold off its interest in Minera Las Cristinas, the operating company formed by Placer and Venezuelan state enterprise Corporacion Venezolana de Guayana, to Vannessa on July 13. Vannessa’s total interest in the project will be 95%.

At the same time, the major retains a 2% net smelter return on Vannessa’s portion of copper revenues from the project and a net smelter return on Vannessa’s share of the gold revenues. This starts at 1% if the gold price is below US$276 per oz., moves up to 3% if the gold price is between US$276 and US$350 and runs to 5% if gold goes over US$350.

Placer also has a retained back-in right, which kicks in if a bankable feasibility study shows a 250,000-oz.-per-year gold mine is profitable. The right can be exercised for Vannessa’s capital costs and “pre-production soft costs,” plus 10%. Vannessa would then be entitled to 2% of Placer Dome’s net smelter return on gold and copper production — provided it has spent a minimum of US$2 million in capital costs on the project and maintained the mining rights for more than a year.

Vannessa is looking at the possibility of a 100,000-oz.-per-year mine, a much smaller operation than had been planned by Placer. The junior estimates that a project on that scale, which would only exploit near-surface mineralization, would cost between US$35 million and US$50 million to go into production.