Toronto-listed Aura Minerals has completed a competitive bidding process for a new offtake agreement for copper and gold concentrate from its Aranzazu mine, in Mexico.
Trafigura has agreed to purchase 100% of the copper and gold concentrate produced at the mine, between 2022 and 2024.
Aura says the current offtake agreement with IXM Metals will remain in force until the end of 2021.
Aura expects Aranzazu to achieve material savings under the new agreement, improving gross margins by four percentage points compared with the terms of the existing agreement.
“In 2018 our priority was to restart Aranzazu under a detailed and sustainable production plan. Since we restarted the project last year, we have been investing in geology and exploration in order to increase the life-of-mine as well, besides optimising operational efficiencies. As result, we have been able to exceed initial expectations set in the feasibility study for certain KPIs, such as recoveries and dilution. Now, we were able to improve the conditions of our offtake agreement, taking advantage of a competitive process and favourable market conditions,” says president and CEO Rodrigo Barbosa.
Aura closed Aranzazu in 2014 to re-engineer and redevelop mine entries and production zones. The mine reopened in 2018, attaining commercial production in December that year.