Minera IRL Provides Corporate Update

LIMA, Peru, Dec. 02, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Minera IRL Limited (“Minera”, the “Company” or “we”) (BVL:MIRL) (CSE:MIRL) is pleased to provide a summary updating its objectives and achievements for the year, and its expectations for 2022.

After entering into our settlement agreement with Corporation Financiera de Desarrollo (“COFIDE”) at the end of 2020, we started 2021 with one fundamental objective - to advance our projects amid unprecedented uncertainty in the face of COVID-19 and its massive impact on the local and the global economies.   Mid-year, we added the election of a new President at the end of a polarized and disruptive campaign, which caused additional concern in international markets and credit rating agencies over our new government’s plans for the mining sector, as well as other industries in Peru.

To begin, we engaged with a well-known and respected Canadian investment bank - Haywood Securities Inc. - to explore potential financing for Ollachea and we retained Australian engineering and mining consulting firm Mining Plus (“Mining Plus”) to update our mineral resource estimate at Corihuarmi and revisit our plan for Ollachea.

As we approach 2022, we would like to reflect on the milestones we have accomplished so far this year, and their significance as key drivers in our effort to advance Ollachea.

COFIDE

Perhaps the most significant highlight to our settlement with COFIDE was that it relieved us of the need to fund the arbitration, enabling us to allocate additional resources to Corihuarmi and Ollachea.

However, COFIDE continues to require our time and attention. First, the settlement agreement needed to be formalized with specific dates for repayment and covenants on both sides. This was achieved on June 24, 2021, when we announced the completion of four inter-related formal settlement documents. Second, COFIDE is still by far our largest creditor, and it holds a security interest in our assets, including Ollachea. This impacts our ability to attract the capital we need in order to advance Ollachea.

Thanks in part to political developments in Peru this year, there is now the possibility to begin new discussions with COFIDE. We are now actively exploring opportunities to modify these credit arrangements in order to make the development of Ollachea more attractive to investors.

ADVANCING OLLACHEA

Over the past few years, we have been studying the possibility of a lower CAPEX start-up for Ollachea. Using revenue that in prior years funded the arbitration with COFIDE, we retained Mining Plus in March of this year to produce a Preliminary Economic Assessment (“PEA”) to validate this possibility. On September 1, 2021, Mining Plus delivered the PEA, presenting an optimized gold mining project located in the Puno Region with all key permits in place, the necessary surface rights, and critical path milestones accomplished.