IMPORTANT NOTICE : We are relocating our Blog to our new website

The Clavo Rico website has recently been redesigned with increased functionality, updated information, and easier access to photos and videos of the mine. As a part of the process to streamline information to investors, we have integrated the blog and the website.  

All archived posts have been moved to the Blog section on clavorico.com, so remember to check there for all future news and updates about our progress.


CLAVO RICO MANAGEMENT

UPDATE: Geological team completes first phase of survey

The geological team contracted by Clavo Rico to conduct the survey of the concession has completed the initial phase of their work. After spending a week on-site, they have taken samples from various areas throughout the concession, and sent the samples from previous drilling programs to a lab equipped to conduct the necessary tests in Guatemala City, Guatemala. 

Using the lab space in Guatemala saves us several weeks of customs and shipping procedures, and we look forward to learning whether the samples are sufficient to prepare an NI 43-101, or if additional drilling will be required.

The two photos below are of the drill samples currently being tested in Guatemala.

Spring 2014 Shareholder Update

April 23, 2014

Dear Shareholders,

The first quarter of 2014 has brought change, growth, and real excitement to the Clavo Rico mine. Beginning in the final weeks of 2013, the last few days have seen the final stages of our expansion plans brought to completion. The expansion project began with replacing the culvert that carries the naturally-acidic water, sourced from the local springs, from the recovery pad to the water treatment plant. We then enlarged the banks of the ponds to allow for the increased water usage anticipated on the expanded pads. While the excavation was underway we initiated and completed the excavation for the new patio, which is roughly 30% larger in surface area than the size of the original recovery pad, and installed a new geomembrane on the new patio, complete with piping necessary to move the gold-bearing solution from the pad to the ADR processing plant. Finally, we also expanded the surface area of the original pad to allow for additional ore to be placed.

Despite the monumental task of completing the expansion prior to the onset of the rainy season, January and February 2014 still had higher gold production than January and February 2013, and certainly higher than 2012. All of these steps position Clavo Rico to be able to exceed our original goal of being able to process over 600,000 tons of the gold-rich ore from the Clavo Rico mining concession. It is important to bear in mind that, to date, we have only developed approximately 10% of the full 200 hectare concession, and much of the remaining 90% is dotted with old gold workings. This leaves us considerably more room to grow, and to do so with the confidence that we can continue to produce gold alongside future expansion projects into other areas of the concession.

As we continue to move forward, the second step of this phase of expansion has been to engage the services of a team to conduct a geological survey of the concession in preparation for issuing an NI 43-101, which would substantiate the reserves that we are confident exist throughout the concession based on previous drilling samples from 2004. This team is headed by John Bolaños, whose pedigree includes several graduate-level degrees in mining and geology from Central America and the United Kingdom, and over 20 years in the mining industry. As Registered Member (Qualified Person) of the SME in the USA, Mr. Bolaños’ experience ranges from geology and mining exploration, to creating mining portfolios, financing companies in the international mining market, and organizing NI 43-101 reports.

We are excited about the steps we have taken to position ourselves as a world-class, producing mine with proven reserves. Once we have our reserves “proven” in the form of the internationally-recognized NI 43-101 and our production has met and surpassed all previous levels, we feel our increased valuation will ready us to compete on the global stage for the attention of a senior gold-mining company as a potential acquisition target, or for entry onto a respectable exchange as a publicly-traded company. We remain confident in our abilities to weather unforeseen setbacks and continue to improve our systems and procedures, and would like to thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,

CLAVO RICO MANAGEMENT

Excavation of patio for new recovery pad.

Completed recovery pad, with geomembrane.

Geomembrane from expanded section of original pad, with piping in place.

Gravel layer being placed on new recovery pad.

Commitment to the environment

As many of our shareholders are aware, the ore currently being processed in the Clavo Rico mine is comprised of tailings from previous mining operations. Moving these tailings to the recovery pad serves the dual purpose of creating an exciting value proposition for the mine, as well as lessening its environmental impact.

The verdant panoramic shot above shows the setting of the current mining activities. The first photo below (unfortunately low-resolution) shows one of the areas that we are currently reforesting, and the second photo shows the growth of an area previously reforested as part of our commitment conducting our mining activities in an ecologically-conscious manner and to improving the local environment. 

In fact, directly adjacent to the original recovery pad is located an area marked as a refuge for iguanas, where they are able to grown and nest in a safe, clean habitat.

UPDATE: Geomembrane is in place

The amount of work involved in the excavation, updates to existing infrastructure, and laying the membrane itself has been nothing short of monumental. 

Once the piping is in place we will be able to begin using the new crusher to distribute a layer of gravel across the top of the membrane, in preparation for the crushed ore itself.

March 2014 Mine Update - Site of the new recovery pad

This video shows how large the expanded recovery pad will be in relation to the original pad.  We see the location of the expansion pad prepared for installation of the geo membrane, as well as the locations of the recovery and holding ponds.

The first holding pond holds rain water, collected during the rainy season, to be used in the sprinkling operations for the rest of the year.  The second, immediately following the first, is the smallest of the four and holds the ore-rich solution as it comes off of the recovery pad before being pumped to the next holding pond (the "pregnant" pond).  Following this we see the original recovery pad in the distance, and the site of the expanded pad in the foreground.  The final two ponds next to each other hold, respectively, the "pregnant" solution before being processed at the ADR plant (just beyond this pond but outside of the frame) and the "barren" solution, which is re-used to continue the gold recovery cycle.

Making connections with the community

At Clavo Rico Ltd, we take pride in not only conducting our mining activities in an ecologically and environmentally responsible manner, but socially as well.

As part of our community outreach program--and to help eliminate any negative social impact the mine may have--every day a mine employee helps to shuttle children from the surrounding area to their school on the other side of the concession.

Clavo Rico are not in the business of making money at the expense of others.  This simple but important gesture underscores our commitment to the community, and to ensuring that the mine is not only profitable to you, our shareholders, but to the local residents who continue to welcome our presence.

Providing safe passage also has the advantage of being exciting for the children, as many of them have never even been driven in a vehicle before.  This is apparent in their faces, as seen in the photos above.

February 2014 Shareholders´ Update

PROGRESS UPDATE

Dear Shareholders:

We wanted to update you on the progress made thus far in the final phase of the recovery field.  The contractors have completed the earthwork for the expansion, we have already received the impermeable membrane at the mine site with all of the necessary piping, and we have commenced with laying and welding the membrane in place as seen in the first photo below.

The second picture below shows earth-moving equipment on the recovery field making some improvements to an under-the-pile culvert.  Our contractors feel that the new concrete culvert will be more secure and better serve us in moving water from springs in the mine through the recovery field to the river below.

At the present time management has made arrangements for a second crusher to crush the gravel for the base of the recovery field so we will not have to discontinue crushing ore for placement on the pile.  While we are working on the expansion we continue to load the pile on the other end to provide some continuity to the leaching process, which is illustrated in the third picture.

All of these activities have been time and resource-intensive, but we are gratified that progress has been made quicker than was originally scheduled and we look forward to getting back to full production.

In light of all the progress we continue to make, many shareholders have inquired as to our ultimate exit. We continue to meet with prospective joint venture partners, purchasers, and investment bankers as we examine all alternatives available designed to bring us closer to a liquidity event once our expansion plans reach completion.  When we have anything concrete regarding these other potentialities, we will inform all of our shareholders.

Sincerely,

CLAVO RICO MANAGEMENT

December 2013 Shareholders´ Update

December 6th, 2013

INTERIM REPORT

During this year’s rainy season we have endured heavier than normal rainfall once again, and it is a credit to the skills of our mining team that we have still been able to show substantial progress during this period.  The profits generated from the sale of gold from July 2013 until the end of November have surpassed those from any other rainy or even dry season, and for the first time have allowed us to cash-flow in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for the last half of this year.

This brings us to two important benchmarks:  One is that we can be self-sustaining even during the worst of times, and indeed can still continue to build even during those times; the second is that the ADR plant is running consistently and efficiently enough to be able to process all of the ore that we can place on the recovery field.

We wanted to keep all of the shareholders up to date as we move into our final stages of completing our expansion plans which will get us to 1,000 ounces of gold production per month and bring the value to our investment as we have planned.  The purpose of this interim report is to announce that, in light of the above benchmarks, we are now ready to complete the expansion of the recovery field and increase the crushing operations to the desired 500 tons per day.

We have ordered a new portable crusher that will enable us to crush to the specification recommended by Kappes, Cassiday and Associates in their pre-expansion consultation of the concession, which the crusher previously used could not do on a consistent basis. Further, it has a greater crushing capacity than the one previously used.  Our agreement with the crusher owner should allow us to be much more cost-efficient since if it is not being used, we do not have to pay for its availability.

We have engaged the services of one of the largest engineering firms in Honduras to design, plan and supervise the construction of phase two of the recovery field.  The photo that accompanied the most recent Quarterly Report is reproduced here to give you an idea of what we are undertaking.  It shows the recovery field as it currently exists, shown from the perspective of our gold-bearing ponds.  We will bring the recovery field from its current end point all the way to the feet of the picture taker.  In addition, we will add height to the pond banks to enable us to store more water during the rainy season without running the risk of overflow.

The process of building the Clavo Rico mine into a world class production operation is continual, but one in which we are making  steady, incremental progress . We look forward to positioning the mine to be an attractive investment for future partners or purchasers.

Sincerely,

CLAVO RICO MANAGEMENT

October 2013 Shareholders´ Update

October 21, 2013

Dear Shareholders,

Management is pleased to be able to report to the shareholders the results of our operations for the third quarter of 2013.

For the quarter ending September 30, 2013, the Company has once again achieved record levels of production and sales of precious minerals.  In Q3 we sold 786 ounces of gold compared to sales of gold of 312 ounces in 2012 for the same period which represents an increase of 152%.  The sales of gold resulted in revenues $1,045,251 compared to revenue for the same quarter in 2012 of $349,089. 

In the third quarter of the year we also achieved our first full quarter of profitable operations by recording a profit of approximately $265,000 for the quarter compared to a loss from operations of approximately $400,911 in the same quarter of 2012.

Now that we have achieved profitable operations on a consistent basis, we have plans to expand the recovery field by moving to Phase Two of our planned expansion.  The initial construction phase will commence at the conclusion of this year’s rainy season in November and is scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of next year.  This will increase the capacity of the recovery field to 600,000 tons and allow us to now concentrate on increasing the crushing and loading operations to push our production to the levels originally intended.

Our intended target is to consistently produce above 1,000 ounces of gold per month, and also conduct a drilling program to establish proven reserves on the remainder of the concession before pursuing a liquidity event.  Preliminary exploratory sampling in other areas of the concession have indicated a high probability of substantial gold reserves, and we look forward to embarking on that phase of our expansion plan.

During our most recent visit to the mine site we took a number of photos to show the intended expansion areas. These photos show the area that will become the remainder of the recovery field.  The new membrane will be laid from the current recovery pile to and including the steps shown in the foreground of the first photo.  The mound covered in the foreground of the pictures is ore waiting to be crushed, and is protected from the daily rains so as to minimize the amount of mud generated during the crushing process. 

Although the rains have slowed us down somewhat our production has continued on pace through this season, which is our first full rainy season with all of our operations intact and we have been pleasantly surprised that production has kept pace during this traditional downtime.  The second photo shows the crusher, which will be moved over toward the old processing plant where the spent ore has been excavated to make more room for the increased field capacity.

We look forward to keeping you apprised of our progress as we move forward with the next stages of our expansion.

Sincerely,

CLAVO RICO MANAGEMENT

UPDATE: Recovery Pad October 2013

Clavo Rico -  A rare moment of lovely sunshine during the rainy season this year.

The photo below shows the progress made to the recovery pad as of early October 2013. 

August 2013 Shareholders´ Update

August 20th, 2013

Dear Shareholders,

The end of the second quarter has been marked as a time of turbulence and uncertainty in the global gold markets.  However as we at Clavo Rico examine the global trends in gold we are more than ever convinced that what we have built at our mine is bearing fruit for us in the way that we envisioned at the start of our expansion.

The World Gold Council has released its analysis of the second quarter.  Most of us will look only at the declined in gold prices and conclude that that decline is indicative of the declining value of our investment.  However, when you closely examine the elements of the gold price supports you are led to the opposite conclusion.

During the second quarter the demand for gold jewelry increased 37% in terms of tonnage and even though the price of gold declined sharply during the quarter, the dollar value of gold used for jewelry increased 20% year over year.  The usage of gold for technology remained relatively constant for the second quarter when compared to the second quarter of 2012.  The demand for gold jewelry was led again by China and India and to a lesser extent by the United States, where demand was also much stronger.  According to surveys conducted of consumers in India and China an overwhelming majority (62%-66%) of those surveyed believed that prices of gold would be higher in the coming years and that the current prices represented a buying opportunity.  Only 11% believed that prices would go lower.

The only area which showed a decline in gold demand was with short term gold investors.  This was driven largely by Exchange Traded Funds (ETF’s), among which Gold demand declined by 76%.  As investors viewed the US economy begin to recover, they fled to the next hottest thing leaving gold behind.  However, we should remember that those investors who pushed the price of gold to new heights were doing so as speculators and not as long-term value investors.  Their leaving will allow the markets to stabilize and the price of Gold to recover as demand continues to rise.

Finally, the supply of gold actually decreased during the quarter as well, driven mainly by a sharp decrease in gold from recycling activities.  During times of relatively high prices gold from recycling constitutes a significant portion of the gold supply.  For the last five years it has constituted approximately 40% of the gold supply and for the current quarter that fell to approximately 30% of the gold supply.  The supply of gold from mine production rose modestly during the quarter although many mining companies have decreased their employees in efforts to trim the costs of extraction. At Clavo Rico, our relatively low extraction costs allow us to remain profitable even during this period of economic recovery. 

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UPDATE- July-August 2013

The two most recent gold pours from the end of July.  We are waiting on the assays to be completed by the new Honduran government agency.

Join us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ClavoRico or contact us via our website www.clavorico.com

UPDATE: Clavo Rico Mine Operations

This montage of clips shows the progress and the recent operations at the Clavo Rico Mine site, including the entire pad covered with the second layer of ore, the beginning of the third layer, and the new ADR plant in action.

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UPDATE: Recovery Pad March 2012 - May 2013

This montage of clips shows the progress of the Clavo Rico recovery pad, from the laying of the gravel layer, to the first layer of ore, to May 2013. At the present time, the entire pad has been covered with 2 layers of ore, and the third is now beginning.

UPDATE - First step in the ADR process

The gold-bearing solution is pumped from the "pregnant" holding pond to the ADR plant. The solution flows through the carbon in the center of these cylinders. The gold clings to the carbon which is then removed and processed to extract the gold, and the remaining solution is pumped back to the "barren" holding pond to be reused on the recovery pad.

The carbon and remaining solution are all regularly tested to ensure complete removal and absorption of the gold content.

UPDATE - Recovery Pad May 2013

This video shows the state of the recovery pad in May 1, 2013 (the crusher was not in operation on this day due to it being a public holiday)  as well as the delivery system for the leaching solution. The second layer of ore has been added, and the third is now beginning. It also shows the location of the ADR plant in relation to the recovery pad.

April 2013 Shareholders´ Update

El Corpus, Honduras- April 2, 2013-  The end of March saw the first complete month’s production of the newly installed and commissioned ADR plant at the mine in El corpus, Honduras.  We are excited to report that the results of the first month with all of the various elements of the plant appear to validate the cost and time that has been devoted to the expansion and updating of the mine operations over the past eighteen months.

Gold production at the plant in the first quarter of the year has exceeded production in 2012 by over 700% and we believe that this will continue to increase.

Although the actual launch of the plant with all of its various components operational has been delayed almost four months longer than we expected, the wait has been well worth the time.  As we continue to optimize the plant’s operating capacity as well as increasing the crushing and recovery field loading processes, we are optimistic that we will achieve our goals of producing 1,000 ounces of gold each month.  There are many areas of production where we can streamline operations to get to the point where we will be loading the recovery field with 500 tons of ore per day, which is the amount of ore needed to meet our production goals.  Since we began loading the recovery field, we have loaded approximately 250 tons per day and now that the plant is operating, we can begin to increase that to the targeted amount of 500 tons per day.  Our experience with the ADR plant shows that it will process all of the gold bearing solution coming from the recovery field with no difficulty.

The image below is of dore bars produced on-site after 1 month of the mine’s operations prior to expansion.  The same amount of gold represented in this photo is now produced on a weekly basis.

January 2013 Shareholders' Update

January 21, 2013

Dear Shareholders,

We are back from the holiday season and ready to commence full operations as planned. As we move into the New Year, the mine and the plant are moving forward as expected as we prepare for a full year of increased production.  The ADR plant has been sized to provide us with the capacity to process enough gold bearing solution to reach production of at least the 1,000 ounce level each month.  The amount of gold ore on the recovery field increases every day and the recovery operation on the field continues 24/7.  We have been able to smelt our first test dore bars in our new smelting furnace, which needed to be relocated from the initial plant configuration.  It is this kind of fine-tuning and minor changes that have been necessary in getting ready for full production.

We have hired a new consultant to work with us in starting up and maximizing the potential of the plant.  Mr. Keith Brogoitti is an experienced mining operator, with many years working with major mining operations all over the world.   In the past, Mr. Brogoitti has been a Senior Metallurgical Engineer for Newmont and became Manager of Carbon Handing and Refining for Newmont Mining’s (NEM) Nevada operations producing 1.7 million ounces per year. He has consulted for Kennecott, Phelps Dodge, Asarco, Noranda, Bema Gold and BHP.  Based in Paraguay, he is proficient in Spanish and is a welcome addition to our team. 

 

It has been our pleasure to host a number of representatives from different mining concerns, including international geological firms.  These groups have been making inquiries concerning the gold fields in and around the Clavo Rico mining concession.  In each case all have been impressed with the progress that the Clavo Rico mine has been able to make in the past two years of our expansion project.  It is now a clean and streamlined operation that can be used as a springboard to much greater exploration and production, both on our concession and for adjacent concessions.  It is management’s intention to continue to showcase the mine and its operations as we move forward this year to the next level and maximize our shareholders’ value.

We look forward to 2013 being the year that the returns on all our investment and hard work will be realized.

CLAVO RICO, LTD MANAGEMENT

UPDATE ON THE NEW ADR PLANT

These photos give an idea of the scale of the new ADR plant and the amount of work that has gone into getting it up and running. With its arrival and assembly, we are one step closer to fully realizing the potential of the Clavo Rico mine and look forward to a productive, profitable new year!