Patagonia Gold Corp. (TSX-V: PGDC) was the target of a robbery at its Cap-Oeste Project in Argentina on Monday morning.
The Vancouver-based company had 500 ounces of gold stolen by a group of thieves in the early hours of April 17, representing one month’s worth of production yield from Cap-Oeste and the company’s Lomada gold deposit.
No workers were killed during the incident but three suffered minor injuries. An investigation is currently underway and the company has suspended operations while it figures out how to implement enhanced safety measures to prevent future occurrences of this nature.
Thieves heisted about US$1 million of gold from a mining project in southern Argentina run by Vancouver-based Patagonia Gold Corp.https://t.co/Dt4iUTKq89
— Buenos Aires Times (@theBAtimes) April 18, 2023
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The development of an underground project at Cap-Oeste is currently a primary focus for Patagonia along with the Calcatreu project in the Rio Negro province. Patagonia currently holds mineral rights and interests to over 350 properties in Uruguay, Chile and Argentina.
In the province of Santa Cruz alone, the company has approximately 475,500 hectares of mining properties.
Robberies of valuable commodities like gold and copper are not unheard of in South America. In January, a group of armed thieves stole four shipping containers full of copper from a Chilean port valued at about $4.4 million.
The merchandise was owned by Chile’s state-owned copper miner Codelco and the robbery was carefully planned, requiring multiple trucks. Five workers at the site were physically assaulted by the thieves during the course of the incident.
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In 2020, gold accounted for three per cent of Argentina’s total exports and the country generated 908,963 ounces, according to World Gold Council data.
Newmont Mining (TSX: NGT) (NYSE: NEM), Barrick Gold (NYSE: GOLD and AngloGold Ashanti (JSE: ANG) are World Gold Council members with operations in Argentina.
Patagonia’s shares stayed flat Thursday at $0.015 on the TSX Venture Exchange and have dropped by 50 per cent over the past six months.
rowan@mugglehead.com
