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Jonathon Naylor Editor Hudbay is making another strategic investment in a junior miner, this time scooping up shares in a company with holdings in Peru. The company announced last week it has acquired 3.9 million units in Vancouver-based Panoro Minerals for $2.34 million. HudBay said the purchase of the common shares and warrants will aide with the exploration and development of Panoro's properties in southeastern Peru. The units were acquired on a private placement basis and are subject to customary resale restrictions. Hudbay now owns about 11.2 per cent of Panoro's issued and outstanding common shares on a partially-diluted basis. Focus Panoro's strategic focus is on exploring and advancing what it calls its 'significant portfolio of large- potential copper and copper/gold deposits in Peru.' Panoro's portfolio includes the advanced Cotabambas copper-gold and Antilla copper-molybdenum projects. A guideline-compliant report for Cotabambas shows inferred resources of 90 million tonnes grading 0.77 per cent copper and 0.42 grams of gold per tonne. Another guideline-compliant report for Antilla shows inferred resources of 154 million tonnes grading 0.47 per cent copper and 0.009 per cent molybdenum. Panoro has a dozen other exploration properties in Peru and continues to evaluate investment alternatives, including joint ventures. Of course Hudbay has its own promising development in Peru, the Constancia copper project, where first production is expected in 2015 and full production in 2016. Hudbay CEO David Garofalo has said his growth strategy is to buy into junior miners with promising projects, giving his company a seat at the table should deposits materialize into mineable assets.
