Impact: Positive
Denarius announced that it has acquired a 50% interest in Rio Narcea Recursos, S.L. (RNR) and its Aguablanca Ni-Cu Mine in Spain for €25M (US$27M). Denarius and RNR have entered into a JV, whereby Denarius will be the operator. Aguablanca is a past-producing Ni-Cu mine, located ~100km north of Seville and ~88km from Denarius’ Lomero project. We view the acquisition positively as it adds to Denarius’ strategy of becoming a near-term producer and could likely provide synergies with its flagship Lomero project. Aguablanca features a 5,000 tpd processing plant in good condition and with excess capacity (~2,500 tpd), thereby providing an opportunity to process material from Lomero. This would help reduce the time and capital cost associated with developing Lomero).