Mine Safety Health Authority (MSHA) has completed its analysis of Fortune Minerals’ acquisition of the Revenue silver mine and the safety improvements that the company has made since becoming the mine operator. The Pattern of Violation (PoV) designation previously applied to the mine by MHSA has now been removed. Located near Ouray, Colorado, in the historic Sneffels Mining District, the Revenue silver miner is an underground mine with a mill and concentrator that is in the commissioning stage and ramping up to a 400-ton-per-day capacity.
In related news, Fortune has secured an additional $5 million financing from Lascaux Resource Capital Fund LP to provide working capital for the Revenue mine. Lascaux provided $35 million to Fortune in October 2014 to finance the acquisition of the mine under a metal prepay facility. An additional $7 million was provided by Lascaux for working capital in December 2014 that was also structured as a metal prepay facility. This second working capital facility was provided substantially under the terms of the financing advanced in December.
Fortune has entered into an off-take agreement to sell lead concentrates produced from the mine to an international producer and marketer of commodities. Lascaux is also a party to this agreement through the metal prepay facility. The lead concentrates produced from the Revenue mine contain most of the recoverable silver as well as significant gold. Fortune and Lascaux received indicative terms from a number of potential purchasers of the concentrate before agreeing to the off-take agreement. The terms of the off-take were not disclosed, but a total of eight shipments of concentrate have been delivered from the mine under this agreement.
