Denarius Metals Corp. (Cboe CA: DMET) (OTCQX: DNRSF), the Canadian junior with gold and polymetallic projects in Colombia and Spain, reported on July 29 that it shipped 3,907 tons of mined material from its Zancudo Project in Antioquia during the second quarter of 2026, a 67% increase over the first quarter, generating revenue of $5.1 million USD. First-half revenue reached $8.6 million USD, against $1.7 million USD for all of fiscal 2025, its first partial year of shipments.

Head grades averaged 11.3 grams per ton of gold and 217.1 grams per ton of silver in the second quarter, against 11.5 and 269.3 in the first. Contained metal totaled 1,416 ounces of gold and 27,265 ounces of silver for the quarter, and 2,279 ounces and 47,502 ounces for the half.

“We continue to advance mine development and plant construction activities toward our objective of producing gold-silver concentrates by the fourth quarter of this year.” – Serafino Iacono, executive chairman, Denarius Metals

Because the material is sold raw rather than as concentrate, Denarius is paid for far less than it digs out. Payable metal for the quarter was 970 ounces of gold and 9,706 ounces of silver — 68.5% and 35.6% of contained metal.

Why the Payability Gap Matters

Denarius began mining at Zancudo in the second quarter of 2025, delivering its first shipment that June. The current phase, which the company calls “early production,” is artisanal mining in already-accessible parts of the mine and runs through the third quarter of 2026 while development opens new fronts for conventional, semi-mechanized work. Mined material is shipped to a local port and sold to Trafigura under a long-term offtake.

Trafigura pays for 30% to 70% of the gold and 20% to 40% of the silver in each shipment, depending on grade, because the trader absorbs the cost of making the material saleable. Denarius says those rates rise to 86% to 90% for gold and 35% to 45% for silver once it ships concentrate from its own plant — a substantial step up on gold from the 68.5% recorded in the second quarter, though second-quarter silver payability of 35.6% already sits at the bottom of the concentrate band.

A District Worked Since 1793

Zancudo covers 1,054 hectares in the municipality of Titiribí, about 30 kilometers southwest of Medellín in the Cauca Belt, and includes the historic Independencia mine. Gold was found there in 1746 and mined from 1793 across 58 workings; the Sociedad de Zancudo held the ground for a century from 1848, and the mine closed in 1945. Denarius estimates historic district production between 1793 and 2006 at 1.4 million to 2 million gold-equivalent ounces. The project lies about 190 kilometers from the port of Buenaventura; a four-kilometer bypass road to the Medellín highway is under construction.

Gran Colombia Gold — a predecessor of Aris Mining (TSX/NYSE: ARIS) — acquired Zancudo in 2010 and optioned it to IAMGOLD Corporation (TSX: IMG; NYSE: IAG) in 2017. Denarius bought the rights in 2021 and took full ownership in 2022 after IAMGOLD declined to complete its earn-in.

A resource estimate effective October 31, 2025, put indicated resources at 979,000 tons grading 6.9 grams per ton gold and 84 grams per ton silver, with inferred resources of 4.6 million tons at 5.6 and 84 grams per ton. A preliminary economic assessment released on March 30, 2026, sketched an 11-year mine life generating $2 billion USD from roughly 466,000 payable ounces of gold and 2.2 million payable ounces of silver, assuming $4,000 USD per ounce of gold and $50 USD per ounce of silver. It draws on inferred resources that cannot be classified as reserves.

What the New Plant Changes

Denarius received its industrial facility permit from Corantioquia (Autonomous Regional Corporation of Central Antioquia), the regional environmental authority, in October 2025, clearing the way to build a 1,000-ton-per-day flotation plant. “We continue to increase our daily average mining rates during the early production phase at our Zancudo Project,” Executive Chairman Serafino Iacono said.

Iacono put first concentrate in the fourth quarter of 2026, a target the company’s own project page also carries. The boilerplate appended to the July 29 release still shows a third-quarter date. Denarius is also drilling about 15,000 meters at Zancudo this year.

The ramp-up coincides with high gold prices. Aris Mining sold gold at an average realized price of about $4,445 USD per ounce in the second quarter, according to the half-year results it reported for its Segovia and Marmato mines. Conditions are harder sector-wide; miners met this year over an approximately 8% contraction in mining GDP and a shift toward asset-light models.

Outside Colombia, Denarius holds 21.8% of Rio Narcea Recursos and operates that company’s Aguablanca nickel-copper project in Extremadura, Spain, an EU-designated Strategic Project. It wholly owns the Lomero and Toral deposits, also in Spain, and in early 2026 formed a joint venture with Saudi-based ProGrowth Ltd. Company, covering processing and smelting arrangements in Saudi Arabia.

]]> https://www.financecolombia.com/denarius-metals-leads-31-million-cad-financing-for-copper-giant-as-trafigura-signs-10-year-offtake-on-colombias-mocoa-project/ Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:57:30 +0000 https://www.financecolombia.com/?p=38759 Financing, offtake and board changes advance Putumayo copper project

Copper Giant Resources Corp. (TSX Venture Exchange: CGNT) (OTCQB: LBCMF) (Frankfurt: 29H0) has signed a binding term sheet for a $30,999,996 CAD non-brokered private placement led by Denarius Metals Corp. (Cboe Canada: DMET) (OTCQX: DNRSF), alongside a separate 10-year offtake agreement with commodities trader Trafigura covering copper and molybdenum concentrate from Copper Giant’s Mocoa Project in the Putumayo department of southern Colombia. Both companies announced the transactions on August 6, 2026.

Under the financing, Copper Giant will issue 43,055,550 common shares at $0.72 CAD per share. Denarius Metals is subscribing for 40,000,000 of those shares for $28.8 million CAD, giving it a 15.6% equity interest in Copper Giant on closing. Frank Giustra, already a significant shareholder in Copper Giant, is subscribing for 2,777,775 shares, resulting in a 15.8% stake on a partially diluted basis, while Ian Harris, Copper Giant’s president and chief executive officer, is subscribing for 277,775 shares. On closing, Copper Giant will have 256,429,248 common shares issued and outstanding. Because Giustra and Harris are insiders, their participation is classified as a related-party transaction under Multilateral Instrument 61-101, though Copper Giant said it expects the participation to be exempt from that instrument’s formal-valuation and minority-approval requirements, as the value of the insiders’ subscriptions is not expected to exceed 25% of the company’s market capitalization. Denarius, Giustra and Harris have each agreed to two-year lock-up arrangements, and the financing is expected to close on or about August 21, 2026.

A separate offtake, and a related financing at Denarius

Separately, Trafigura has agreed to purchase 20% of the copper concentrate and 20% of the molybdenum concentrate produced at Mocoa for 10 years from the start of commercial production, under arm’s-length market terms that include minimum delivered volumes; Trafigura may elect to extend the term if those minimums are not met.

“This transaction changes the trajectory of Mocoa. Denarius’s investment gives us the capital to move through the PEA and accelerate the next phase toward a construction decision, while Trafigura provides a long-term route to global markets. Together, these partners bring Colombian operating experience, market reach and long-term alignment at a pivotal moment for copper and for Colombia.”
— Ian Harris, President and Chief Executive Officer, Copper Giant Resources Corp.

The Copper Giant financing runs alongside a related but separate transaction at Denarius: Trafigura has agreed to acquire 67,000,000 Denarius common shares at $0.43 CAD per share, plus 12,500,000 warrants exercisable at $0.60 CAD per share for three years, raising approximately $28.8 million CAD for Denarius and giving Trafigura an approximate 14.9% stake in the company. That financing is also expected to close on or about August 21, 2026, and its proceeds fund Denarius’s investment in Copper Giant.

Serafino Iacono, Denarius’s executive chairman, said the company was investing in Copper Giant for the long term: “We know Colombia and we know what it takes to move a project from resource to operation. Mocoa stands out for its scale, its copper-molybdenum endowment and its potential importance to Colombia’s mining future. We are investing as a long-term partner because we believe Copper Giant has the asset and the team to advance it responsibly.”

Edmundo Vidal, Trafigura’s director for Latin America, linked the offtake to Colombia’s push to develop copper as a strategic mineral: “Colombia has the geological conditions and the opportunity to become an important copper producer. We are pleased to see projects like Mocoa develop, especially given the country’s recognition of copper as a strategic mineral. Our long-term offtake at Mocoa reflects both our confidence in the project, and our strategy of working with producers to bring new supply to customers around the world.”

Colombia’s Agencia Nacional de Minería (National Mining Agency, or ANM) has designated copper among the minerals it considers strategic for the country’s energy transition, a designation Vidal referenced in his remarks.

Board changes and the Mocoa resource

Copper Giant is also appointing Carlos Augusto Suárez Rojas to its board of directors, effective on closing of the financing and subject to approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. Suárez is a Colombian attorney and political strategist and the founder and chief executive officer of Bogotá-based public affairs firm Estrategia & Poder S.A.S., which led strategy for the presidential campaign of Colombian President Abelardo De La Espriella and advises several Colombian state governments. Separately, Copper Giant is appointing Federico Restrepo-Solano, Denarius’s chief executive officer, to its advisory board. Restrepo-Solano has more than 25 years of experience in the oil and mining sectors across Latin America and leads Denarius’s operations in Colombia and Spain. The board move follows Copper Giant’s 2025 prior consultation agreement with the Inga Condagua Indigenous Nation, a prerequisite the company cleared before advancing exploration permitting at Mocoa.

Mocoa, located in Putumayo department, holds an Inferred Mineral Resource of 1,120 million tons at an average grade of 0.51% copper-equivalent, comprising 7.6 billion pounds of copper at 0.31% and 1.0 billion pounds of molybdenum at 0.039%, according to the resource estimate Copper Giant filed with Canadian securities regulators. Copper Giant holds more than 132,000 hectares of district-scale tenure around the deposit, which the company says was first identified in 1973 through a regional geochemical survey conducted by the United Nations and the Colombian government, followed by exploration campaigns from 1978 to 1983 and further drilling by B2Gold in 2008 and 2012. The mineral resource estimate was prepared by Kevin Hon and Warren Black of APEX Geoscience, with an effective date of November 18, 2025, and peer-reviewed by APEX president and chief executive Michael Dufresne; a full technical report incorporating the estimate, also naming APEX Geoscience‘s Dufresne, Black and Hon alongside Chester de Leon of Consultec Limited, carries an effective date of December 23, 2025, and was filed January 8, 2026. The estimate’s economic assumptions include copper priced at $4.00 USD per pound and molybdenum at $20.00 USD per pound, copper and molybdenum recoveries of 90% and 95%, respectively, and a cutoff grade of 0.25% copper-equivalent. Copper Giant has continued drilling at Mocoa since that estimate was filed, including a third mineralized breccia corridor confirmed below the current conceptual pit, which the company has said points to a larger resource than the current estimate captures.

Copper Giant, part of the Vancouver-based Fiore Group, has focused on advancing Mocoa toward a preliminary economic assessment and eventual construction decision. Denarius Metals, based in Toronto, is producing gold and silver at its Zancudo Project in Colombia’s Cauca Belt, near Medellín, while completing construction of a processing plant there, and holds mineral projects in Spain, including the Aguablanca project, which the European Union has designated a Strategic Project. Trafigura, founded more than three decades ago and employee-owned, trades and moves commodities including metals, energy and minerals across a network operating in more than 150 countries.

Neither company has disclosed a timeline for the preliminary economic assessment the new capital is meant to fund.

Headline photo: Copper Giant field geologists during exploration work at the Mocoa copper-molybdenum project in Putumayo. (Photo courtesy Copper Giant Resources Corp.)

Denarius Metals Corp. (Cboe CA: DMET) (OTCQX: DNRSF) has reported the first assay results from its 2026 surface in-fill diamond drilling program at the Las Brisas target on its wholly owned Zancudo gold-silver project in Colombia, located in the Cauca Belt about 30 kilometers southwest of Medellin.

The results cover the final assays for the first four drill holes, totaling roughly 660 meters, completed from the first purpose-built surface drill platform. The holes confirmed the high-grade gold and silver mineralization previously modeled on the Manto Antiguo and Santa Catalina structures.

Highlight intercepts included 7.43 grams per ton (g/t) gold and 15 g/t silver over 1.20 meters from 93.8 to 95.0 meters in hole ZM-195 on the Santa Catalina structure, including 28.70 g/t gold and 38 g/t silver over 0.30 meters. Hole ZM-197, on the Manto Antiguo structure, returned 8.36 g/t gold and 1,670 g/t silver over 1.0 meter from 160.3 to 161.3 meters, including 27.83 g/t gold and 5,564 g/t silver over 0.30 meters.

Key Drilling Results at Las Brisas

Notes: Intervals are core lengths; true widths are estimated at 80% to 90% of the reported lengths. Gold-equivalent (AuEq) grades were calculated using prices of $3,200 USD per ounce of gold and $40.00 USD per ounce of silver. “Unknown” denotes a new structure that does not correlate with any known structure or vein. Hole MT-196 returned no results above the 4 g/t AuEq cut-off, and hole MT-198 was aborted at shallow depth due to excessive deviation.

The Las Brisas target is an unexploited block within the Manto Antiguo structure that was preserved by past mining. The in-fill program is designed on 50-by-50-meter drill centers from eight platforms (IF-5 to IF-12) to better delineate and confirm the consistency of two ore shoots outlined by earlier drilling on the Manto Antiguo and Santa Catalina structures. The Manto Antiguo ore shoot, controlled by the intersection of the two structures, typically shows wider and higher-grade intercepts.

“This early progress at the Las Brisas Target reinforces our confidence in the continuity and quality of the known ore deposits at Zancudo.” – Serafino Iacono, Executive Chairman, Denarius Metals

Drilling at Las Brisas began in late April 2026 with a single rig and comprises about 6,000 meters across 29 diamond drill holes. The reported results cover the first four holes, about 660 meters, drilled from the first platform (IF-7). All holes completed to date on Manto Antiguo, totaling about 560 meters, intersected the structure at the estimated depth, with a maximum grade of 27.83 g/t gold and 5,564 g/t silver over 0.30 meters in ZM-197. On Santa Catalina, holes totaling about 660 meters intersected the structure at depth, with a maximum grade of 28.70 g/t gold and 38 g/t silver over 0.30 meters in ZM-195.

“This early progress at the Las Brisas Target reinforces our confidence in the continuity and quality of the known ore deposits at Zancudo,” said Serafino Iacono, executive chairman of Denarius Metals. “The 2026 in-fill drilling program has been designed taking into account the successful results achieved in our 2024 in-fill drilling campaign and underscores the potential and prospectivity of delineating new zones and expanding existing ones near planned mining infrastructures. We look forward to providing further updates through the course of this year’s drilling campaign.”

Structures and Geology

The Manto Antiguo structure, historically the main structure mined, is interpreted as a west-northwest to east-southeast trending brecciated manto that merges into the footwall of the Santa Catalina structure. 

The northerly-trending Santa Catalina structure, which dips steeply to the east near surface and gently at depth, is interpreted as a mineralized master fault and the feeder of mineralization for the entire vein system. The typically narrow Manto Antiguo structure shows a breccia texture with incipient quartz-sulphide banding and milled wall-rock clasts, with mineralization consisting of pyrite, arsenopyrite, sphalerite, and galena.

2026 Program and Processing Plant

The 2026 drill program totals a planned 15,000 meters across several targets within the Zancudo project, including Las Brisas, El Castano, the Independencia mine, and brownfield areas. The company said the program is intended to provide data for resource modeling, mine planning, and stope design as it ramps up mining at Zancudo in 2026 and 2027 to feed the project’s new 1,000-ton-per-day flotation processing plant, which is under construction and expected to be operating later this year.

The resource evaluation work was completed by Scott E. Wilson, CPG, president of Resource Development Associates and an independent qualified person under Canada’s NI 43-101, who inspected the Zancudo project on June 2-3, 2026. Core samples were prepared and assayed for gold by Actlabs at its laboratory in the Rionegro free-trade zone in Antioquia, Colombia, with multi-element analysis completed at its laboratory in Ancaster, Ontario.

Denarius Metals is a Canadian junior mining company focused on precious metals and polymetallic projects in Colombia and Spain, and trades on Cboe Canada as “DMET” and on the OTCQX Market in the United States as “DNRSF.” 

At Zancudo, its 100%-owned high-grade gold-silver deposit that includes the historic Independencia mine, the company is producing in an early-production phase while completing the processing plant, which it expects to begin producing high-grade gold-silver concentrates in the third quarter of 2026. 

In Spain, Denarius holds a 21.8% interest in and operates the Aguablanca nickel-copper project, recognized by the European Union as a Strategic Project, and owns 100% of the Lomero polymetallic project and the Toral zinc-lead-silver project.

Headline image description: The diagram showcases the target location of Denarius Metals in their Las Brisas mine site, and what they projected to have discovered there. Photo provided by Denarius Metals.