Candente Copper Corp
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CANDENTE COPPER CORP. MANAGEMENT DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS YEARS ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2011 and 2010 CANDENTE COPPER CORP. Management’s Discussion and Analysis Years ended December 31, 2011 and 2010 (Expressed in U.S. Dollars, Unless Otherwise Noted) INTRODUCTION The following Management’s Discussion and Analysis (“MD&A”) of Candente Copper Corp. (“Candente Copper”) and its subsidiary companies (collectively, the “Company”) is prepared as of March 28, 2012 and should be read in conjunction with the Company’s audited consolidated financial statements and related notes for the years ended December 31, 2011 (“fiscal 2011”) and December 31, 2010 (“fiscal 2010”), As of January 1, 2011, the Company’s financial statements are reported under International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS”). The effects of the Company’s conversion from Canadian Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (“Canadian GAAP”) to IFRS have been identified in Note 11 of the Company’s March 31, 2011 unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements and Note 15 of the Company’s December 31, 2011 audited consolidated financial statements and in this MD&A. The Company’s reporting currency is the United States dollar and all figures in this MD&A are in United States dollars unless otherwise indicated. Some of the statements in this MD&A are forward-looking statements that are subject to risk factors set out in the cautionary note contained herein. Candente Copper’s common shares are listed on both the Toronto and Lima Stock Exchanges under the trading symbol “DNT”. Additional information on the Company can be found in the Company’s Annual Information Form (“AIF”), filed with the Canadian regulators and available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS Candente Copper is a Vancouver, Canada based mineral exploration company engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of mineral right interests. The Company is currently focused on the exploration and development of its Cañariaco Norte copper project (the “Cañariaco Norte Copper Project”), the Cañariaco Sur, Quebrada Verde and Jehuamarca prospects (collectively with the Cañariaco Norte Copper Project, the “Cañariaco Property” or the “Cañariaco Project”) located in Northern Peru. CORPORATE DEVELOPMENTS In 2009, Candente Copper made the strategic decision to complete a plan of arrangement that included the transfer of the Company’s interests in various precious metals mineral right interests to a newly incorporated company, Candente Gold Corp. (“Candente Gold”) in exchange for consideration that included shares in Candente Gold. The mineral right interests transferred to Candente Gold were those where the precious metal component was considered dominant or essential to making the project economic based on then current metal prices and the Company’s geological knowledge of the mineral right interests at the time of the transfer. On April 30, 2009 and on December 17, 2009 respectively, the Company completed the transfer of its interests in the El Oro property and its Peruvian silver- gold mineral right interests to Candente Gold. Candente Gold’s shares started trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange (“TSX”) on January 4, 2010. The Company currently holds a 9% interest in Candente Gold. The arrangement allowed the Company to dedicate its resources to copper and base metals exploration and development, specifically the Cañariaco Norte copper project. In 2010, management completed a financing for gross proceeds of $6,060,695 and awarded AMEC Americas Limited (“AMEC”) with the contract to complete a comprehensive pre-feasibility study on Cañariaco Norte. In November 2010, the Company announced a significant increase in the mineral resource estimate for Cañariaco Norte and in December 2010, filed a technical report prepared by AMEC to support the increase in the mineral resource estimate. In 2011, the Company announced the receipt from AMEC of a positive pre-feasibility study progress report for Cañariaco Norte entitled “Cañariaco Project, Lambayeque Department, Peru, NI 43-101 Technical Report on Pre- feasibility Study Progress Report” (the “January 2011 Pre-Feasibility Study Progress Report”) . Details of the January 2011 Pre-Feasibility Study Progress Report are contained in the Company’s Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2011, under “Mineral Projects – Cañariaco Project”. Page2 CANDENTE COPPER CORP. Management’s Discussion and Analysis Years ended December 31, 2011 and 2010 (Expressed in U.S. Dollars, Unless Otherwise Noted) On February 17, 2011 Candente Copper closed a bought-deal financing (the “Bought Deal Offering”). The Bought Deal Offering was closed with a syndicate of underwriters led by Dundee Securities Ltd. and Scotia Capital Inc. as lead underwriters, and including Raymond James Ltd., Wellington West Capital Markets Inc. and Stonecap Securities Inc. (collectively, the “Underwriters”) for total gross proceeds of $27,136,722 (Cdn$26,969,800), inclusive of the proceeds from the full exercise of the over-allotment option granted to the Underwriters. Candente Copper issued an aggregate of 13,156,000 Common Shares at a purchase price of Cdn$2.05 per Common Share. In addition to the Bought Deal Offering, the Company completed a non-brokered private placement (the “Non-Brokered Offering”) issuing 1,563,415 Common Shares at a price of Cdn$2.05 per Common Share for gross proceeds of $3,246,228 (Cdn$3,205,001). On May 17, 2011, the Company announced the approval of a proposal to undertake a spin-out transaction that would reorganize the business and capital structure of the Company into two separate public companies in order to allow the Company to focus on the development of Cañariaco by way of plan of Arrangement under the Business Corporation Act (British Columbia) (the “2011 Arrangement”). Pursuant to the 2011 Arrangement, on June 2, 2011, Candente Copper incorporated a new subsidiary, Cobriza Metals Corp. (“Cobriza”), to which it transferred 100% of its indirect interest in all of its Peruvian exploration mineral right interests other than the Cañariaco and Jehuamarca claims, which cover the Cañariaco Norte Deposit as well as the Cañariaco Sur and Quebrada Verde prospects. In addition to the transfer of the mineral right interests, Candente Copper subscribed for common shares of Cobriza (“Cobriza Shares”) to provide Cobriza with approximately $6 million in working capital. Of the Cobriza Shares received, the Company retained a position of approximately 15% in Cobriza and distributed the remaining Cobriza Shares to its shareholders on a pro-rata basis of one Cobriza Share for every 5 Common Shares held, by way of a reduction of the capital of the Company. At the Company’s annual general and special meeting held on August 23, 2011, the Company’s shareholders approved, among other things, the 2011 Arrangement. The 2011 Arrangement was approved by the Supreme Court of British Columbia on August 25, 2011. On October 6, 2011 the 2011 Arrangement was completed and the Cobriza Shares were conditionally approved for listing in the TSX. On October 12, 2011 the Cobriza Shares began trading on the TSX under the symbol “CZA”. On November 24, 2011 the Company announced a reassessment of the Cañariaco Norte Copper Project economics using the new MMR and SMT tax rates. The after-tax NPV, IRR and payback period for the project being $912 million, 17.2% and 4.4 years respectively, at a long term copper price of $2.25 per pound and a discount rate of 8%. The Company also announced an increase in processing rate to 100,000 to 110,000 tonnes per day, the selection of a new tailings containment area significantly closer to the proposed process plant, the selection of a southern mine access route that follows the current access road route, and progress in acquiring drilling permits that should result in drilling commencing in the first quarter of 2012. The Company posted a loss in the year of $7,785,268. The most significant expenses were a loss on transfer of mineral right interests of $3,401,190 and a share-based payment of $2,151,874 (both of these expenses being non- cash expenses). In 2011, the Company also posted other comprehensive loss of $6,479,973, comprised of an unrealized loss on available-for-sale financial assets of $4,764,689 and a cumulative translation allowance of $1,715,284. Comprehensive loss for the year ended December 31, 2011 was $14,265,241. Loss per share was $0.07. Page3 CANDENTE COPPER CORP. Management’s Discussion and Analysis Years ended December 31, 2011 and 2010 (Expressed in U.S. Dollars, Unless Otherwise Noted) PROJECTS UPDATE Cañariaco The Cañariaco property (the “Property”) is a 19,200 hectare advanced stage porphyry copper exploration and development project located in Northern Peru. The Company’s main focus is to progress development of the Cañariaco Norte project through completion of a Feasibility Study and to conduct an exploratory search for additional mineable mineral deposits within the Cañariaco property. The Company acquired the Property through a government auction process in 2001, and since acquisition has met all regulatory requirements to maintain the Property in good standing. The Company has a 100% interest in the mineral rights of the Property and is in discussions with the local community regarding securing an agreement for long term surface rights access. The Cañariaco porphyry system lies within a belt of porphyry copper deposits, which follow a northwesterly trend 350 km from Cajamarca to the Ecuadorian border. The known porphyry deposits within this belt comprise two types: porphyry copper-molybdenum and porphyry copper-gold deposits. Cañariaco Norte is a porphyry copper-gold deposit. Property work completed to date has defined one copper-gold porphyry deposit at Cañariaco Norte, one copper-gold porphyry system at Cañariaco Sur, and one copper-gold porphyry target at Quebrada Verde. Mineralization at Cañariaco Norte is copper-gold-and silver and is associated with a composite, multiphase porphyry stock and breccias with a well-developed fine to medium grained quartz-sulphide stockwork.