Why Andina?
You can learn more about Andina by exploring our entire Web site. This summary highlights some of the key aspects that we believe make Andina shares an attractive investment opportunity.
1. Andina’s Volcan Project is located in Chile, one of the best places in the world to develop and operate a mine.
Chile has been ranked as one of the top ten mining jurisdictions worldwide for a number of years. The Fraser Institute ranking takes many factors into account, including mineral potential, labour, political, regulatory and taxation environment. Chile understands mining and the important contribution it makes to its economy and hence Andina finds a mining-friendly government and culture allowing us to focus more resources on the technical aspects of building a mine.
2. Volcan rates among the largest independently held gold resources and has strong unexplored growth potential.
To date, we have identified measured and indicated resources* of 9.8 million ounces of gold and inferred resources of 0.8 million ounces of gold at Volcan’s Dorado deposits. The average grade at Volcan of 0.62 g/t is comparable to other large scale, low-grade heap leach operations, including one only 35 kilometres from Volcan working under very similar conditions. From an exploration standpoint, less than 10% of the Volcan property has received significant geological attention or been drilled to date and the current discoveries remain open in several directions.
3. Volcan development is not complex (Au only) and is expected to have relatively low development costs in comparison to other resources of this magnitude.
This is an important consideration in today’s environment of multi-billion dollar mining projects involving complex metallurgical and/or logistical challenges. We expect a mine at Volcan to be less complex to design, build and operate based on the metallurgy testing to date, access to infrastructure, location in Chile and proximity to surface of the deposit. While we are still looking at all of the possibilities in terms of mining and processing, it looks quite likely that much of the resource will be amenable to open-pit mining, which is usually the most simple and quickest to develop.
4. Andina has added to its substantial land position at the heart of the prolific Maricunga gold belt.
While more than 60 million ounces of gold have already been discovered in the Maricunga, there remain many possibilities for expansion. In May 2009, Andina doubled its mineral concession area in the Maricunga through a share transaction with Barrick (more).
5. Volcan development standards will be a model for responsible mining.
Having good local and government relationships and solid health, safety and environmental practices is just as important to a successful mining project as strong technical expertise. Andina has demonstrated its corporate responsibility. Under the leadership of Alejandro Labbe, we will build on Andina’s positive record in Chile.
If you are interested in investing in Andina, you should read our most recent Annual Report, quarterly reports and the other materials available in the Investors section and elsewhere in this site, to assess whether Andina shares are suitable in light of your risk tolerance. To this end you should review and carefully consider the "Risk Factors" section of our Annual Information Form. If you decide to invest, you must purchase shares through a broker, a financial institution providing brokerage services or through an on-line trading service.
* Dorado deposits measured and indicated resource based on 492.5 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.62 g/t Au and inferred resource based on 36.8 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.65 g/t Au, both at a cut-off grade of approximately 0.3 g/t. Ojo de Agua inferred resource based on 18.6 million tonnes grading 0.85 g/t Au at a cut-off of 0.5 g/t Au.