Aura Minerals

Canaccord Genuity Acts as Exclusive Financial Advisor to Aura Minerals on its A$92 Million Proposed Acquisition of Big River Gold

Canaccord Genuity is pleased to announce that on April 19, 2022, its client, Aura Minerals Inc. (TSX:ORA, B3:AURA33) (“Aura” or the “Company”) announced that they entered into a binding Scheme Implementation Deed with Big River Gold Limited (ASX:BRV) (“Big River”), pursuant to which a subsidiary of Aura (“Aura BidCo”) will acquire 100% of the issued and outstanding ordinary shares in the capital of Big River (“Big River Shares”) by way of a scheme of arrangement under Part 5.1 of the Australian Corporations Act 2001 (“Scheme”).

Canaccord Genuity is acting as exclusive financial advisor to Aura.

Pursuant to the Scheme, holders of Big River Shares (“Big River Shareholders”), other than Dundee Resources Limited (which owns 19.3% of the Big River Shares), will receive A$0.36 in cash (“Cash Consideration”) for each Big River Share held. Aura will hold its interest in Aura BidCo through an intermediate holding company (“Aura JVCo”) and Dundee Resources has agreed, subject to certain limited conditions, to receive shares in Aura JVCo, in lieu of the Cash Consideration, in order to indirectly maintain its current equity interest in Big River. In addition, Copulos Group, which owns 18.8% of the Big River Shares, has confirmed that it intends to vote in favour of the Scheme resolution (in the absence of a superior proposal and subject to an independent expert opining that the Scheme is in the best interests of Big River Shareholders (and to that opinion being maintained up to the date of the Scheme meeting)).

The acquisition represents an attractive opportunity for Aura to expand its pipeline of development stage projects through the acquisition of Big River’s Borborema Gold Project in Brazil (“Borborema”). Borborema, which is expected to operate an open pit gold project, has a JORC-compliant Measured and Indicated Mineral Resource estimate of 1.87Moz Au at 1.14 g/t Au and an additional Inferred Mineral Resource of 0.57Moz Au at 1.0 g/t Au. Aura's management and skilled personnel have extensive experience in the Brazilian mining industry and are well suited to develop Borborema.

Aura is a mid-tier gold and copper production company focused on the development and operation of gold and base metal projects in the Americas. The Company’s producing assets include the San Andres gold mine in Honduras, the Ernesto/Pau-a-Pique gold mine in Brazil and the Aranzazu copper-gold-silver mine in Mexico. In addition, the Company has two additional gold projects in Brazil (Almas and Matupá), one gold project in Colombia (Tolda Fria) and the Gold Road mine in Arizona, United States, currently in care & maintenance.

Big River is a mineral exploration and development company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. Its major focus is Borborema, a project with a resource of 2.43Moz of gold which is located in the Seridó area of the Borborema province in north-eastern Brazil, a country that Big River believes is underexplored and offers high potential for the discovery of world class mineral deposits. Borborema consists of three mining leases covering a total area of 29 Km2, including freehold title over the main prospect area, existing on-site facilities, and excellent infrastructure such as buildings, grid power, water, and sealed roads. It is close to major cities and regional centres as well as the services they can provide.

The Canaccord Genuity team included Tom Jakubowski, Mark Silvestre, Matt Reimer, Christian Calabrese, Thomas Tran, and Tony Huang from Investment Banking.