Pan American Silver - La Arena divestment

Pan American Silver (PAAS) has announced a sale of the La Arena and La Arena II projects to Zijin Mining for US$245m in cash, US$50m in a contingent payment and a 1.5% NSR gold royalty. La Arena II is a copper and gold sulphide deposit that sits underneath the currently producing La Arena gold project. We view the transaction as positive for PAAS, given La Arena’s very short mine life, significant capex required to bring La Arena II into production and the fact that copper is not PAAS’s core commodity.