ROAD TOWN, British Virgin Islands, March 28, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aura Minerals Inc. (TSX: ORA) (B3: AURA33) (OTCQX: ORAAF) (“Aura” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that production ramp-up at its Borborema Mine (“Borborema” or “Mine”) has commenced. The mine and plant are currently in operation and the Company expects to achieve commercial production by Q3 2025. Borborema is poised to become a cornerstone asset for Aura, expected to have the second-highest annual production among the Company's five operations currently at production stage, once commercial production is achieved. Aura envisions Borborema to be a strong economic driver and a testament to its strategic growth in Brazil's mining landscape.
Rodrigo Barbosa, President, and CEO, commented, “The start of production at Borborema marks a proud milestone for Aura—our fifth mining operation and second greenfield project, projected to be one of our lowest-cost mines, built on time and on budget in just 19 months with zero lost time incidents. This success showcases our strategy of creating simple, scalable, and efficient projects that are easy to build and run, setting the stage for Aura as a reliable operator and new mine builder. Borborema stands as a global ESG benchmark, driven by innovations like using grey water from the nearby municipality and renewable energy, fully embodying our Aura 360 commitment to responsible operations.”
Mr. Barbosa added, “We are also pleased to highlight the strong economic fundamentals of the Mine, which delivers an after-tax internal rate of return (IRR) of 41.8% on an unleveraged basis and 81.4% considering 50% leverage, based on a gold price of US$2,600 per ounce1. Notably, these figures do not yet reflect the significant upside potential from future reserve growth, particularly once the road relocation is executed.”
The 100% owned Borborema project is an open pit gold mine, located in the municipality of Currais Novos in the northeast of Brazil. On August 30, 2023, Aura announced a Feasibility Study indicating an anticipated production of 748,000 ounces of gold over 11.3-year LOM, with possibilities for even greater output in a deposit with over 2,000,000 contained ounces of gold in Indicated Mineral Resource category. Aura holds 100% of Borborema Inc.'s shares, the owner of Borborema. According to the Company’s Guidance announced on February 27, 2025, available on SEDAR+, the Company expects 2025 production at Borborema to be between 33,000 and 40,000 ounces of gold.
Borborema`s Highlights:
Annual Production - average of 83,000 Oz. per year for the first 3 years1; Borborema 2025 Production Guidance is between 33,000-40,000 Oz.
LOM - 11 years, based on existing Proven and Probable Mineral Reserves
Submitted Approval of the Road Relocation - Relocating the road has the potential to convert significant additional Indicated Mineral Resources (exclusive of current Mineral Reserves) into Mineral Reserves2 (Figure 2).
Growing Workforce Contributing to Region and Community Development - Borborema employs approximately 2,184 personnel directly and indirectly, with 68% currently hired from the local community with efforts to expand this percentage, encouraging entrepreneurship and regional economic growth. Operators training, focused on local community, was concluded, building a skilled local workforce for the plant operation.
Figure 1: Location of the Borborema Project, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil
Figure 1: Location of the Borborema Project, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil
Figure 2: Borborema Project-Mineral Resource Outlines, Feasibility Study Mineral Reserve Optimized Pit Shell and Current Highway
Figure 2: Borborema Project-Mineral Resource Outlines, Feasibility Study Mineral Reserve Optimized Pit Shell and Current Highway
Figure 3: Ball mill
Figure 3: Ball mill
Figure 4: Borborema Overview
Figure 4: Borborema Overview
Figure 5: Borborema Team
Figure 5: Borborema Team
Qualified Person
The scientific and technical information contained in this press release has been reviewed and approved by Farshid Ghazanfari, P.Geo., Geology and Mineral Resources Manager, an employee of Aura and a “qualified person” within the meaning of NI 43-101.
About Aura 360° Mining
Aura is focused on mining in complete terms – thinking holistically about how its business impacts and benefits every one of our stakeholders: our company, our shareholders, our employees, and the countries and communities we serve. We call this 360° Mining.
Aura is a mid-tier gold and copper production company focused on operating and developing gold and base metal projects in the Americas. The Company has 5 operating mines including the Aranzazu copper-gold-silver mine in Mexico, the Apoena, Almas and Borborema gold mines in Brazil, and the Minosa (San Andres) mine in Honduras. The Company’s development projects include Cerro Blanco in Guatemala and Matupá in Brazil. Aura has unmatched exploration potential owning over 630,000 hectares of mineral rights and is currently advancing multiple near-mine and regional targets along with the Carajas (Serra da Estrela) copper project in the prolific Carajás region of Brazil.
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This press release contains “forward-looking information” and “forward-looking statements”, as defined in applicable securities laws (collectively, “forward-looking statements”) which may include, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the activities, events or developments that the Company expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future, including the timeline for the commencement of ramp up and for achieving commercial production, as well as the Company’s expectations regarding gold production at Borborema during 2025, besides the Company's expectations regarding the time required to complete the studies and to announce the start of construction of the Matupa Project. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words and phrases such as “plans,” “expects,” “is expected,” “budget,” “scheduled,” “estimates,” “forecasts,” “intends,” “anticipates,” or “believes” or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results “may,” “could,” “would,” “might” or “will” be taken, occur or be achieved.
Known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are beyond the Company’s ability to predict, or control could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Specific reference is made to the most recent Annual Information Form on file with certain Canadian provincial securities regulatory authorities for a discussion of some of the factors underlying forward-looking statements, which include, without limitation, the ability of the Company to achieve its short-term and longer-term outlook and the anticipated timing and results thereof, the ability to lower costs and increase production, the ability of the Company to successfully achieve business objectives, copper and gold or certain other commodity price volatility, changes in debt and equity markets, the uncertainties involved in interpreting geological data, increases in costs, environmental compliance and changes in environmental legislation and regulation, interest rate and exchange rate fluctuations, general economic conditions and other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect the forward-looking statements.
All forward-looking statements herein are qualified by this cautionary statement. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or otherwise revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information or future events or otherwise, except as may be required by law. If the Company does update one or more forward-looking statements, no inference should be drawn that it will make additional updates with respect to those or other forward-looking statements.
1This analysis is not included in the Borborema FS, this is a management simulation with a gold price of US$2,600 per ounce and keeping all other assumptions of the Feasibility Study unchanged 2Based on assumptions presented in the Feasibility Study Technical Report (NI 43-101) for the Borborema Gold Project, CurraisNovos Municipality, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil (2023)
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