Oroco raises $2.7 million from private placement, shares rise

Oroco Resources Corp. [TSXV-OCO, OTC-ORRCF] said it has raised $2.7 million from a non-brokered private placement financing with proceeds earmarked for working capital, corporate overhead and development activities.

Oroco shares advanced on the news, rising 2.6% or $0.01 to 40 cents. The shares trade in a 52-week range of $1.10 and 36.5 cents.

News that the financing has closed comes after Oroco recently announced a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) and updated mineral resource estimate for the north and south zones at its Santo Tomas copper-molybdenum-gold project in northwest Mexico.

The private placement consisted of 6.72 million units priced at 40 cents per unit. Each unit consists of one share and one share purchase warrant, each of which entitles the holder to purchase one share for 65 cents for 18 months after the closing date.

ATM Mining Corp., a company controlled by a group of senior Oroco executives and directors, participated in the private placement by purchasing 777,000 units for $308,000. They include Executive Chairman Craig Dalziel, CEO Richard Lock, President Ian Graham, a numbered company controlled by CFO Steve Vanry, and Corporate Secretary David Rose.

The participation of each in the private placement is exempt from the valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 as the fair market value of each participation is less than 25% of the market capitalization of the company.

Oroco holds a 85.5% interest in those central concessions, covering 1,173 hectares of the Santo Tomas project. These are the “Core Concessions.’’ The company also holds an 80% stake in an additional 7,861 hectares of mineral concessions that surround and lie adjacent to the Core Concessions.

The PEA results support a staged open pit mine and processing plant starting at 60,000 tonnes per day the first year of production and expanding to 120,000 tonnes in year two. The PEA envisages a lifespan of 20.1 years.

Total life-of-mine payable copper production is estimated at 4.74 billion pounds.

The initial capital cost is pegged at US$1,34 billion with sustaining and expansion capital estimated at US$,134.5 billion. Oroco is estimating a pre-tax, net present value (8.0%) of US$2.3 billion.

The PEA mineral resource estimate includes two primary mineralized zones: North Zone and South Zone. These zones display similar mineralization styles but are physically separated by localized post-mineralization faults and material currently identified as waste due to a lack of drilling.

The North Zone hosts an indicated resource of 561 million tonnes, containing 4.57 billion pounds of copper equivalent (CuEq). On top of that is inferred resource in the North Zone of 118.3 million tonnes of 848 million pounds of CuEq.

The South Zone is estimated to contain an inferred resource of 430.8 million tonnes of 3.3 billion pounds of CuEq.