Resource World Magazine

MINING Atico Mining expanding resources at El Roble Mine in Colombia by Kathrine Moore Atico Mining Corp.'s El Roble Mine, Colombia. Photo Courtesy of Atico Mining Corp. Atico Mining Corp. [ATY-TSXV] is managed and founded by a team with a family track record of success. Jorge R. Ganoza, President of Atico, was VP of Operations at Fortuna Silver Mines Inc. [FVI-TSX], operator of two, 100%-owned, producing silver mines in Peru and Mexico. His son, Fernando E. Ganoza, CEO of Atico, was project and country manager for Fortuna Silver Mines. Jorge and Fernando left Fortuna and went to Colombia where they successfully executed the same business model that lead to Fortuna's success. They founded Atico, an entirely new and separate business entity. Atico is more of a mine operator than explorer. Atico's business strategy is to find and acquire producing, small-scale, copper-gold mines with growth potential – mines that can significantly benefit from a complete and thorough upgrading. In January of 2011, Atico signed an option agreement to acquire a 90% interest in the 6,679-hectare El Roble Mine located in Colombia's VMS central copper-gold trend. The property is four hours away, by paved highway, from the city of Medellin and hosts a producing copper-gold mine, near the town of Carmen de Atrato. The option agreement called for a total of US $2.25 million in staged payments of over two years, which have been paid. Atico exercised their right to extend the option agreement until January 2014 by paying US $1.2 million. Anytime before the end of the agreement, Atico can take control of the mine by paying a lump sum of US $14 million. The El Roble Mine, the single largest APRIL 2013 employer in the area, has been in production for over 20 years mining high-grade copper-gold; it has 18 months of mineral reserves at 2.5% Cu and 2.0 g/t Au (Non NI-43 101 compliant). Ganoza said the current operator, MINER, this year, has a positive cash flow of US $3–4 million. Atico plans to keep the current workforce and add expertise. Some miners have been working at El Roble for 15 to 20 years. It is the only copper-gold VMS deposit in production in Colombia. "We are looking to give the operation a seven to nine year mine life with the new resources we have found," explained Ganoza. "We are optimistic about discovering additional high-grade copper-gold mineralized assets on the property using [the mine's] current positive cash flow." The big prize he said "is to find additional VMS lenses." VMS deposits generally occur in clusters. Past exploration work generally focused on the mine vicinity. Multiple geochemical anomalies for copper-gold have been identified along the 10-km contact zone; only three of which have been drill tested. A ground magnetic survey confirms anomalies and has generated 42 exploration targets. In January of 2013, Atico announced that ongoing, underground drilling had discovered a significant new massive sulfide body, Zeus, at the north end of known mineralization which now extends 360 metres along strike and 250 metres below level 2000, the lowest production level at the mine. The company also reported results of seven underground drill holes, ATDHR-20 through ATDHR-26, which included 119 metres of 6.9% copper and 6.3 g/t gold. The discovery presents a significant opportunity to quickly bring newly discovered resources to production using the existing mine and mill infrastructure. The 400 tpd plant is currently producing 300–400 tpd (75,000 tpa). The mill is oversized and can easily be expanded with little capital expenditure to process 500–700 tpd (150,000 tpa). Atico's planned 5,000-metre underground drill program is expected to be completed this year. Ganoza said, "My guess is that we are going to keep finding more and more promising geologic areas to explore within the El Roble property." Parallel with the underground 2013 drill program, Atico began a 9,000-metre surface drill program to test new targets in the vicinity of the mine and along the 10-km favourable VMS controlling units on the El Roble property. Targets to be tested with 3,000 metres in 11 diamond drill holes include; Otos area DE of El Roble Mine, Archie and Santa Anita. Igor Dutina, Investor Relations for Atico, said, " Atico's appointment of Mr. Thomas Kelly, COO, is an important step taken towards production. The company is currently in the process of completing engineering studies to determine the CAPEX required in order to move the El Roble mine forward after we exercise the option agreement this year. We are looking forward to positioning ourselves, in the near future, as the only copper-gold producer in Colombia." Atico has 52,107,305 shares issued and outstanding, 64,156,152 fully diluted; 70% of Atico's shares are owned by insiders and institutions. n www.resourceworld.com 37

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