Canadian company McEwen Copper, a subsidiary of McEwen Mining with operations in San Juan, has closed a new US$35 million investment made by Nuton LLC, a company led by Rio Tinto. "This investment is part of a previously announced financing offer, consisting of a private placement of up to 2,333,333 common shares at a subscription price of US$30 per share, for a total of up to US$70 million."
By Panorama Minero
The first tranche of the offer included a US$14 million investment from McEwen Mining and US$5 million from Rob McEwen, the company’s founder. With the closing of this second tranche, Nuton has acquired an additional 1,166,666 common shares for US$35 million, while two other investors purchased 66,669 common shares for US$2 million. To date, McEwen Copper has received a total of US$56 million in investments from this offer.
As a result of this transaction, Nuton now holds 17.2% of McEwen Copper on a fully diluted basis. Following the issuance of these new shares, McEwen Copper will have 32,804,284 common shares outstanding, giving the company a post-money market valuation of US$984 million. The main shareholders of McEwen Copper are: McEwen Mining Inc. with 46.4%; Stellantis with 18.3%; Nuton with 17.2%; Rob McEwen with 12.7%; Victor Smorgon Group with 3.0%; and other investors with 2.0%.
The funds raised will be used to advance the feasibility study of the Los Azules copper project, located in San Juan province. This study is expected to be completed in the first half of 2025. Los Azules is considered one of the 10 largest undeveloped copper deposits in the world, with indicated resources of 10.9 billion pounds of copper and additional inferred resources of 26.7 billion pounds.
