Toronto, Ontario – August 29, 2018) Duran Ventures Inc. (TSXV: DRV; BVL: DRV)(“Duran” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that the previously announced change of name of the Company to Peruvian Metals Corp. will be effective as of the opening of trading on Wednesday, September 5, 2018 and will trade under the symbol “PER”.
The purpose of the name change is to reflect the business plan of the Company. Duran Ventures has been successfully acquiring, optioning and selling mineral property assets throughout Peru for over 20 years. The management team has developed extensive experience and built many local relationships that facilitate the Company’s endeavors. The Company has successfully established the Aguila Norte Mineral Processing Plant (“Aguila Norte Plant” or the “Plant”) in Northern Peru and is now processing third party mineral. The Company will produce at the Plant high quality precious and base metal mineral concentrates for sale. The Company has also two major mining companies earning a majority interest in two highly prospective properties that the Company generated and acquired by application with the Ministry of Mines: Panteria Cu-Au with First Quantum Minerals and Mansa Musa with IAMGOLD Corporation. An update on the progress on the earn-ins will follow soon.
Duran owns an 80% interest in the Aguila Norte Plant that is strategically located just off the Pan American highway, near Peru’s 2nd largest city, Trujillo, in Northern Peru. Abundant small-scale mining activity occurs in northern Peru but there are very few independent processing facilities available. The Aguila Norte mineral processing plant hosts crushing, milling, gravity separation and flotation circuits with an initial throughput capacity of 100 tonnes per day. Duran is currently processing third party mineral by charging a processing fee to registered legal miners. Recently Duran entered into a mineral purchase agreement and anticipates feeding high-grade lead and zinc sulphide mineralized material through the Aguila Norte Plant to produce high-value concentrates available for sale to the Peruvian metal trading market.
Duran has identified and is currently negotiating on several mineral purchase agreements for secure sources of mineralized material. Mineral purchase agreements are more economically favourable to the Company than charging a simple processing fee. Under mineral purchase agreements the Company takes ownership of the concentrates and is able to better leverage its position when negotiating the sale of concentrates to metal traders. The Company eventually intends to focus only on mineral purchase agreements, and processing 100% owned mineral from Duran’s concessions. The Company is currently preparing for exploitation permits to extract mineral on certain 100% owned concessions and will process this mineral at the Plant or other processing facilities in Peru.
Duran will also continue to acquire new exploration projects by using its successful project generation approach. Besides the internally generated Panteria Cu-Ag and Mansa Musa Au-Ag projects the Company currently has 100% interests in several gold-silver properties in Northern Peru and several concessions hosting Au-Ag-Cu-Pb-Zn mineral located in the Huachocolpa Mineral District in South Central Peru. The Company will continue to seek partners both large and small to develop and explore 100% owned concessions. Jeffrey Reeder, CEO of Duran, comments: “Duran’s Board of Directors understands the difficulties facing the mineral exploration industry. The Company is comfortable with its sole Peruvian focus and still sees much value for its shareholders in the significant potential underlying the Company’s portfolio of mineral projects. Duran will be able to continue acquiring assets and sustain a successful project generation business model by taking advantage of the strategic location of the Aguila Norte Plant to generate cash flow. The willingness of the Peruvian government to allow the formalization of small miners has and will benefit our Company because of the need for legal processing plants such as the Aguila Norte Plant and capital to expand mining operations. We are excited to build partnerships with local miners throughout Peru”. The Company also announces that a total of 1,500,000 options to purchase common shares of the Company have been granted to directors and officers at an exercise price of $0.05 per share, expiring on August 28, 2020. The grant is subject to regulatory approval.
Jeffrey Reeder, P Geo, a qualified person as defined in National Instrument 43-101, has prepared, supervised the preparation or approved the scientific and technical disclosure contained in this news release.
