LCL wins Colombia’s leading ESG award

Published 11-NOV-2022 14:18 P.M.

2 min read

This morning, our gold Investment Los Cerros (ASX:LCL) announced that it had won the Colombian Gold Symposium ESG Award.

For those living under a rock, ESG stands for Environmental Social Governance, and is somewhat a measure of how corporations act responsibly.

In this instance, LCL has been recognised for its Miraflores Somos Todos (We are all Miraflores) program, which assists the local artisanal mining community to transition to more sustainable and safer activities.

These activities include agricultural training and capital for farm optimisation, higher education scholarships, and entrepreneurial productive projects. The latter in particular has had a profound impact on the local community, incorporating high profile initiatives such as Quinchips and Quinchia Coffee projects.

ESG is especially important for companies with ambition to develop projects through to commercialisation, as without government and community support, these projects rarely receive the green light to advance. When done well, the local community and government can actually become proactive advocates, as has been the case with LCL - Los Cerros recognised for local ESG endeavours.

This all bodes well should LCL progress its Quinchia Project in Risaralda, Colombia through to production.

If you recall, this project is a cluster of porphyry and epithermal gold/copper targets within a 3km radius, underpinned by established Mineral Resources of 2.6Moz @ 1g/t Au, with further upside for more discoveries.

LCL remains cashed up, with over $11M in the bank as at 30 September 2022, so is well funded to advance Quinchia.

What’s next?

We look forward to an update on the progress of the Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA). As covered with our LCL Investment Memo, the PEA provides clarity on what investment returns development of the project could deliver.

The recent election of a left-leaning president has dampened broad investor interest in resources companies focused in Colombia, and we’re watching to see how the new president's policies play out.