Vancouver, BC, August 11, 2022 – Aftermath Silver Ltd. (the “Company” or “Aftermath Silver”) (TSX-V: AAG) (OTCQX: AAGFF) is pleased to announce that it has completed the acquisition of a 100% interest in the Challacollo silver-gold project in located in Northern Chile through the acquisition of all of the issued and outstanding equity rights of Minera Mandalay Challacollo Limitada from Mandalay Resources Corporation ("MRC") and Mandalay Resources (Chile) SPA. The acquisition was previously announced on November 12, 2019 and updated on April 29, 2021.
Aftermath Silver made the final payment of C$3,000,000 to MRC through a cash payment of C$1,000,000, the issuance of 6,122,448 common shares at a deemed price of C$0.245 per share and the issuance of a promissory note in the amount of C$500,000 repayable upon the earlier of: (i) the completion by the Company of a debt or equity financing for gross proceeds of at least C$1,000,000; and (ii) December 31, 2022. The shares are subject to the final approval of the TSX Venture Exchange as a debt settlement. The shares are subject to the usual Canadian securities law four month plus a day hold period.
Ralph Rushton, Chief Executive Officer and President of Aftermath, said: "I'd like to thank everyone at Mandalay Resources Corporation for their hard work in closing this transaction. We're excited to finally own 100% of the Challacollo silver-gold project, and to begin to explore its exploration potential once all of the required permits are in place. In December 2020 we published a NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate for Challacollo which will form the basis of our future work program. The project benefits from excellent infrastructure and easy access from the Pan American highway"
About The Challacollo Project
Challacollo is a low-sulphidation epithermal silver-gold system located in Region I in Northern Chile, 130 km southeast of the major port city of Iquique and 50 km south of the town of Pica. The project office is in Pica. The plains surrounding the project are at 1,000m above sea level with the Challacollo Mountains rising towards around 1,550m above sea level. The project lies approximately 30 km east of the Pan American Highway, and is accessed via Teck Resources’ Quebrada Blanca Copper Mine road. High voltage power transmission lines are located 15-30 km from the property, in part to service nearby mines of Collahuasi and Quebrada Blanca. The Project includes water rights groundwater rights for 12 l/sec, held since 2005 at Tamentica community 10km west of Challacollo.
The Company announced a CIM compliant Mineral Resource for Challacollo on December 15th, 2020. For full details of the Mineral Resource please see the NI 43-101 Technical Report titled “Challacollo Silver-Gold Mineral Resource Estimate” with an effective date of December 15, 2020, available on SEDAR and on the Company's web page for full details.
Table 1. Summary of the Mineral Resource Estimate for the Challacollo Silver-Gold Project
Classification |
Material Type |
Tonnes (Kt) |
Silver (g/t) |
Gold (g/t) |
Silver (Koz) |
Gold (Koz) |
Indicated |
Open Pit |
5,597 |
170 |
0.27 |
30,639 |
49 |
Underground |
1,043 |
134 |
0.29 |
4,510 |
10 |
|
TOTAL |
6,640 |
165 |
0.27 |
35,150 |
58 |
|
Inferred |
Open Pit |
2,360 |
117 |
0.15 |
8,912 |
11 |
Underground |
443 |
157 |
0.26 |
2,232 |
4 |
|
TOTAL |
2,803 |
124 |
0.17 |
11,144 |
15 |
Source: AMC Mining Consultants (Canada) Ltd, (2020)
Notes on the Challacollo Mineral Resource Estimate
- CIM Definition Standards (2014) were used for reporting the Mineral Resources.
- The effective date of the estimate is December 15, 2020, incorporating data to November 30, 2020.
- The Qualified Person is Dinara Nussipakynova, P.Geo., of AMC Mining Consultants (Canada) Ltd.
- Mineral Resources are constrained by an optimized pit shell at a long-term metal price of US$20/oz Ag with recovery of 92% Ag and metal price of US$1,400/oz Au with recovery of 75%.
- Silver equivalency formula is AgEq (g/t) = Ag (g/t) + 57.065 *Au (g/t).
- The open pit mineral resources are based on a pit optimization using the following assumptions:
- Plant feed mining costs of US$3.5/t and waste mining cost of $2.5/t.
- Processing costs of US$17/t and General and Administration costs of $2.5/t.
- Edge dilution of 7.5% and 100% mining recovery.
- 45-degree slope angles
- Cut-off grade is 35 g/t AgEq g/t.
- The underground mineral resources are reported within Datamine MSO stopes based on the following assumptions:
- Mining costs of US$35/t.
- Processing costs of US$17/t and General and Administration costs of US$2.5/t.
- Minimum width of 2.5 m
- No dilution or mining recovery.
- Cut-off grade is 93 AgEq g/t
- Bulk density used was 2.47 t/m3
- Drilling results up to 31 December 2016.
- Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.
- The numbers may not compute exactly due to rounding.
- Mineral Resources are depleted for historic mined out material.
About Aftermath Silver Ltd.
Aftermath Silver is a leading Canadian junior exploration company focused on silver, and aims to deliver shareholder value through the discovery, acquisition and development of quality silver projects in stable jurisdictions. Aftermath Silver has developed a pipeline of projects at various stages of advancement. The Company's projects have been selected based on growth and development potential.
- Berenguela Silver-Copper project. The Company has an option to acquire a 100% interest through a binding agreement with SSR Mining. The project is located in the Department of Puno, in southern central Peru. A NI 43-101 Technical Report on the property was filed in February 2021 (available on SEDAR and on the Company's web page). The Company is currently drilling at Berenguela and planning to advance the project through a pre-feasibility study.
- Challacollo Silver-Gold project. The Company owns 100% of the Challacollo silver-gold project after completing the acquisition of the project from Mandalay Resources. A NI 43-101 mineral resource was released in December 2020 (available on SEDAR and on the Company's web page).
- Cachinal Silver-Gold project. The Company owns a 100% interest in the Cachinal Ag-Au project, located 2.5 hours south of Antofagasta. On September 16, 2020 the Company released a CIM compliant Mineral Resource and accompanying NI 43-101 Technical Report (available on SEDAR and on the Company's web page).
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
“Ralph Rushton”
Ralph Rushton
CEO and Director
604-484-7855
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information
Certain of the statements and information in this news release constitute “forward-looking information” within the meaning of applicable Canadian provincial securities laws. Any statements or information that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance, including without limitation, exploration plans at the Company’s mineral projects and anticipated final approval from the TSX Venture Exchange of the debt settlement (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as “expects”, “is expected”, “anticipates”, “believes”, “plans”, “projects”, “estimates”, “assumes”, “intends”, “strategies”, “targets”, “goals”, “forecasts”, “objectives”, “budgets”, “schedules”, “potential” or variations thereof or stating that certain actions, events or results “may”, “could”, “would”, “might” or “will” be taken, occur or be achieved, or the negative of any of these terms and similar expressions) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements or information.
These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward‐looking statements, including without limitation, failure of the Company to obtain necessary permitting for road access at the Challacollo project and failure to obtain final approval from the TSX Venture Exchange of the debt settlement. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward‐looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward‐looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward‐looking statements include, but are not limited to, changes in commodities prices; changes in expected mineral production performance; unexpected increases in capital costs; exploitation and exploration results; continued availability of capital and financing; and general economic, market or business conditions. In addition, forward‐looking statements are subject to various risks, including but not limited to operational risk; political risk; currency risk; capital cost inflation risk; that data is incomplete or inaccurate. The reader is referred to the Company’s filings with the Canadian securities regulators for disclosure regarding these and other risk factors, accessible through Aftermath Silver’s profile at www.sedar.com.
There is no certainty that any forward‐looking statement will come to pass and investors should not place undue reliance upon forward‐looking statements. The Company does not undertake to provide updates to any of the forward‐looking statements in this release, except as required by law.