Dear Valued Shareholder,
On Tuesday, February 6, 2024, the Company announced a $1,000,000 Private Placement to primarily fund a targeted expansion drilling campaign at the Company’s flagship Cerro Caliche gold project in Sonora, Mexico. Click here to read the news release.
Sonoro insiders, who currently hold 25% of the issued and outstanding shares, propose subscribing for 25% of the financing as a commitment to the company and its objective to bring Cerro Caliche into production and we would also welcome your participation in the private placement.
As I discussed in my earlier Chairman’s Message of January 8, 2024, the objective of the upcoming campaign is to increase the minable resource of the project and extend the currently estimated life of mine for a proposed open-pit, heap-leach mining operation.
A Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) on the project, filed in October 2023, demonstrates the potential viability for an initial 9-year mine. Using a gold price of US $1,800 per ounce, the project has an after-tax NPV5 of US $47.7M and an IRR of 45%. Using a gold price of US $2,000 per ounce, the project has an after-tax NPV5 of US $77M and an IRR of 63%.
The PEA also notes the project’s potential upside for exploration including potential gold mineralization within the current modelled mineralized zones as well as along strike and parallel to the current vein trends. Only 30% of the property’s identified mineralized zones drilled and assayed to date.
Drilling will initially focus on the western mineralized zones where we plan to commence mining operations and where prior drilling demonstrated multiple high-grade ore shoots. We also plan to drill in the northern mineralized zones to potentially increase and upgrade the resource as well as in the central mineralized zones to potentially increase the pit shell resource and reduce the strip ratio.
As I also discussed in my previous Chairman’s Message, the Capital Markets remain exceptionally challenging for the junior mining sector and the inordinate delay in obtaining approval Cerro caliche’s Environmental Impact Statement, or Manifestacion de Impacto Ambiental (MIA), from the Mexican federal permitting authority has understandably impacted investor sentiment and Sonoro’s share performance.
The upcoming drilling expansion program will occur alongside the development of the project to take advantage of the time remaining before the MIA is approved. And while I am acutely conscious of dilution, any equity raise is always done for the minimum requirement to maintain operations and project development. As such, I believe that the benefit of the drilling campaign, designed to potentially increase and upgrade the resource, outweighs the dilution and is in shareholders’ best interest.
If you would like to participate in the current financing or having any comments or questions regarding Sonoro Gold, you can contact me directly at john@sonorogold.com or our office at info@sonorogold.com. For more information on the Company and the Cerro Caliche project, please visit our website.
As a reminder, Sonoro will be an exhibitor at the upcoming 2024 PDAC Mineral Exploration & Mining Convention in Toronto on March 3rd to March 6th at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Booth No. 3230.
We will also be presenting at Red Cloud’s PRE-PDAC Mining Showcase at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel from February 29th to March 1st. If you are attending any of these events, please visit us at the Sonoro booth.
Kindest Regards,
John M. Darch, Chairman
Sonoro Gold Corp.
Forward-Looking Statement Cautions:
This Chairman’s massage may contain “forward-looking information” as defined in applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements other than statements of historical fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding the Cerro Caliche project, and future plans and objectives of the Company, constitute forward looking information that involve various risks and uncertainties, including statements regarding the amount of financing proposed to be raised, intended use of the financing proceeds, sufficiency of fund to complete certain project development steps, and outlook for the results of the contemplated drilling program. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable based on current circumstances, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts; they are generally, but not always, identified by the words “expects”, “plans”, “anticipates”, “believes”, “intends”, “estimates”, “projects”, “aims”, “potential”, “goal”, “objective”, “prospective” and similar expressions, or that events or conditions “will”, “would”, “may”, “can”, “could” or “should” occur, or are those statements, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions that forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company’s management on the date the statements are made and they involve a number of risks and uncertainties, including the possibility of unfavorable exploration and test results, the lack of sufficient future financing to carry out exploration and development plans and unanticipated changes in the legal, regulatory and permitting requirements for the Company’s exploration programs. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law or the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange. Readers are encouraged to review the Company’s complete public disclosure record on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.
This message does not constitute or form a part of any offer or solicitation to purchase or subscribe for securities in the United States. The securities referred to herein have not been and will not be registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), or with any securities regulatory authority of any state or other jurisdiction in the United States, and may not be offered or sold, directly or indirectly, within the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons, as such term is defined in Regulation S under the Securities Act (“Regulation S”), except pursuant to an exemption from or in a transaction not subject to the registration requirements of the Securities Act”
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