Canadian mining companies Adventus Mining and Salazar Resources have secured a positive Certificate of No Affect of Water by the Ministry of Environment and Water in Ecuador for their El Domo–Curipamba copper-gold project.
Considered to be a milestone certificate, this permit will allow the two companies to build the project infrastructure in an area with surface and ground water resources.
The developers will continue their efforts to secure all permits and licensing approvals needed to start the El Domo–Curipamba project’s construction, which is scheduled for the second quarter of next year.
The project has also received authorisation from the local municipality and fire department for the use of explosive storage-related infrastructure. These approvals are prerequisites for securing final authorisation from the Joint Command of the Armed Forces of Ecuador.
The final step for the tailings dam construction has been completed with a design review and favourable technical report from the Ecuadorean Ministry of Energy and Mines. This design is now being reviewed by Agency of Regulation and Control.
Adventus owns a 75% stake in the project after completing investment and feasibility milestones. It entered an agreement in 2017 to acquire an interest in the project.
After spending nearly $25m on feasibility studies and meeting several development obligations, in December 2021, Adventus exercised its option to acquire a 75% stake in the project. The remaining 25% interest is owned by Salazar.
The project is located in central Ecuador about 150km from the city of Guayaquil. It includes seven concessions and occupies around 21,500 hectares (215km²).
El Domo is a volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit with mineralisation starting at 30m from the surface, and has dimensions of around 800mx400m.
It has shown results at 24.02m at 5.41% copper, 6.4 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, 2.68% zinc, 58.6g/t silver, 0.15% lead and 8.16m of 2.17% copper, 19.67g/t gold, 23.17% zinc, 229g/t silver and 4.01% lead.
