Exit Strategy
Nieves Exit Strategy
Our goal is to create an Open Pit Mine. There are very few open pit silver mines in the world. A world-class viable silver resource mineable by open pit able to produce 5M ounces of silver per year for >10 years with good economics, accessibility, infrastructure, and positive political climate is a desirable acquisition target for multiple silver miners in the Faja de Plata province.
We are currently in development of an exit plan. Blackberry Ventures LLC’s business plan calls for finding, delineating, and assessing a plus-billion ounces silver resource, demonstrating the economic feasibility of mining the resource, and exiting through a sale, joint venture or exploration option (“farmout”) to a best-in-class mining group while Nieves is still in development.
Option 1: Direct Sale
The first option is a direct sale to a “best-in-class” precious metal miner for cash and/or stock. An example is the Western Silver Corporation exit executed by members of BBV’s senior management team:
- Western Silver invested $40 million in Nieves’ sister property, Peñasquito, over a 4-year period;
- Western Silver sold the property to Glamis Gold, Ltd. in 2006 in exchange for Glamis stock in a transaction valued at $1.2 billion;
- Glamis then sold the property to Goldcorp in a transaction that valued Western Silver’s shareholders stake in Glamis at $1.6 billion.
- Goldcorp is being bought by Newmont for $10B. Peñasquito accounts for $4.6B of that acquisition.
Option 2: Joint Venture
The second option is a joint venture with a best-in-class noble metals miner group for cash and carry. An example is the Anglo Potash-BHP joint venture and Anglo Potash’s exit for cash and carry:
- Anglo Potash acquired 404,686 hectares of sub-surface mineral leases at a cost of $2,500,000 on a known potash deposit located in Saskatchewan, Canada, commissioned a third-party resource report, populated a data vault with requisite due diligence and then approached BHP with the opportunity;
- BHP and Canadian Potash subsequently entered into a JV agreement whereby BHP acquired 10% of Anglo Potash for C$5,000,000 and a binding commitment to spend up to C$60 million to take the property to economic feasibility to earn an additional 65% of the joint venture;
- Upon determining economic feasibility, BHO acquired Anglo Potash in a friendly takeover for US$281 million.
Strategy
Pit Resource Expansion
We are currently working towards the goals and objectives of our Pit Resource Expansion Pan. BBV is presently expanding our drilling program by drilling core holes averaging 270 meters in depth. The expansion is based on using geophysical data with drilling data and analysis to show potential vein targets. The timeline for this expansion plan is an estimated 18 months.
Further Exploration
To achieve our goals, a comprehensive exploration program will be conducted at Nieves. The program will involve a series of surveys, including magnetic, geological, and geochemical surveys, to identify potential drill targets. The data collected from these surveys will be analyzed to determine the location of the intrusive source of mineralization and other magnetic anomalies that may indicate the presence of undiscovered veins.
Pit Optimization
Blackberry’s immediate objective is to optimize the current silver/gold resource suitable for open pit mining described by M3 Engineering in their 2012 preliminary economic assessment (PEA) of Nieves and increase the size, grade and classification of the silver and gold resource through infill and step out drilling.