Companies & Business

Aura Minerals: From Borborema to the NYSE

In a single year, Aura Minerals commissioned a new mine, completed a

major Brazilian acquisition and listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

The sequence is more than a corporate victory lap — it is a template for

how Brazilian mid-tier gold producers can scale in the current cycle.¹

The Growth Story in Numbers

Aura Minerals entered 2025 with a production guidance of 266,000 to

300,000 gold-equivalent ounces, operating a portfolio of five mines —

four in Brazil and one in Honduras (Minosa).¹ Over the course of the

year the company commissioned a sixth operation, absorbed a seventh, and

completed a United States equity listing that diversified its

shareholder base.

The numbers alone are impressive, but the sequencing matters more. Aura

proved that a mid-tier Brazilian producer can execute construction, M&A

and capital-markets initiatives in the same twelve months — a rare

combination for a company of its size. That proof point is likely to

influence how investors, lenders and targets treat similar names over

the next cycle.

Borborema's On-Time Commissioning

The Borborema mine in Rio Grande do Norte was the construction story of

the year for Brazilian gold. Aura commissioned the operation in the

first quarter of 2025, on the schedule the company had indicated at

project launch, and on its US$188 million capital budget.¹ The

construction phase took 19 months — a pace comparable to what Australian

mid-tier producers manage in their own jurisdictions.

Borborema's significance is as much operational as financial. Rio Grande

do Norte is not a legacy gold-producing state, and the successful

commissioning of a modern open-pit operation there widens the geographic

envelope of Brazilian gold. It also demonstrates that mid-tier producers

can deploy capital effectively outside the historical Minas

Gerais-Bahia-Pará triangle — a data point that state-level governments

and exploration companies in the Northeast will use.

Commissioning on budget in Brazil is not trivial. Currency volatility,

import-duty cycles on imported equipment and permit timelines have

historically pushed Brazilian construction projects beyond their

announced envelopes. Aura's ability to hold the Borborema budget and

schedule made the project a reference point for how well-run mid-tier

construction can be in the country — and it will be cited by competitors

and financiers for years.

The Serra Grande Acquisition

In the second half of 2025 Aura acquired the Mineração Serra Grande

operation in Goiás from AngloGold Ashanti for US$76 million.¹ The deal

added an operating underground mine, its associated plant and its

permits to Aura's book — taking the company's operating portfolio to

seven mines and pushing its 2026 pro forma production above the

300,000-ounce threshold.

The strategic logic was tight. AngloGold was rotating capital toward

larger, longer-life operations in other jurisdictions; Aura, already

comfortable running mid-scale narrow-vein assets, paid a reasonable

price for a proven producer. Integration risk was limited because Serra

Grande's workforce, supplier base and regulatory framework continued

unchanged.

The Serra Grande acquisition also reshaped Aura's geographic weight in

Brazil. Before the deal the company had a Center-West footprint through

Aldeia and Apoena in Mato Grosso and an expanding Northeast position

through Borborema and Almas. Adding Serra Grande in Goiás created a more

connected production map across Brazil's mining heartland and gave Aura

enough assets in any single region to rationalise procurement, logistics

and regulatory engagement.

Listing on the NYSE

In 2025 Aura priced a United States listing at US$24.25 per share,

bringing North American capital to its shareholder base.¹ The company

was already listed in Canada; the US listing widens the distribution,

improves trading liquidity and positions Aura for inclusion in North

American mid-cap gold equity benchmarks.

Access to that capital matters for several reasons. Mid-tier gold

producers outside North America have historically traded at structural

discounts to their US-listed peers, even with comparable assets and

reserves. Aura's NYSE listing starts to close that gap — and if the

company can continue to execute on M&A and organic growth, the re-rating

could continue through 2026.

The listing also has corporate-governance implications. US-listed

issuers face disclosure, audit and board-composition requirements that

are often more rigorous than what a purely Canadian-listed mid-tier must

meet. Aura's willingness to take on that regulatory weight signals

management confidence and, in turn, is likely to attract institutional

allocators who were previously unable to own the stock for compliance

reasons.

The Mid-Tier Thesis Embodied

Aura has effectively answered a question that had hung over Brazilian

gold for years: can a mid-tier company built around the country's

specific operational realities scale internationally? The 2025 track

record says yes — construction, acquisition and capital-markets

execution in the same year.

The formula has three elements. First, operational discipline on small,

narrow-vein or mid-scale open-pit assets that majors find sub-scale but

that still produce attractive all-in sustaining cost performance when

run tightly. Second, opportunistic M&A timed to price cycles, using

rising gold prices to justify paying fair value for proven operations.

Third, capital-markets sophistication — moving from a Canadian listing

to a dual Canadian/US listing to capture the deeper pool of North

American mid-cap gold investors.

The model is not unique to Aura, but Aura has executed it most visibly.

Other mid-tier producers in Brazil — and across Latin America — are now

following similar playbooks, and capital allocators are watching to see

whether the 2025 template can be replicated.

Outlook

For 2026, Aura faces three specific challenges. Integrate Serra Grande

fully. Manage the Borborema ramp to steady-state production at design

throughput. Justify the US listing by continuing to execute on guidance.

If the company clears those hurdles, a run-rate above 400,000

gold-equivalent ounces becomes plausible, and another small acquisition

becomes affordable. Brazilian mid-tier gold has its reference company

for the cycle. Whether Aura sustains that status through 2026 will

depend less on ambition than on the quiet work of running seven mines

well at the same time. For investors, the lesson of the 2025 year is

simpler still: in Brazilian gold right now, with a record price

environment and an active M&A market, execution compounds faster than

almost any other variable — and Aura's recent track record shows exactly

what that kind of compounding looks like in practice when the management

team is willing to push hard on all three fronts at once.

Meta: Aura Minerals commissioned Borborema, acquired Serra Grande and

listed on the NYSE in 2025. The template for scaling a Braz

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