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Brazilian Bounties for Verena Minerals
By James West and Claire O'Connor
MidasLetter.com
Monday, February 22, 2010
Brazil is known for many things – Carnival, The Girl from Ipanema, Gisele Bundchen’s legs. Gisele Bundchen’s entire body for that matter. And, as you know, Brazil is home to a world-class mining industry with remarkable exploration potential.
Verena Minerals Corporation (TSXV: VML, US OTC: VNNHF) is capitalizing on this little nugget of information and is exploring for gold along a major mineralized belt in northern Brazil, a region boasting vast mineral wealth. Director Stephen G. Roman tells us exactly what Verena has discovered, and how you could be a part of it. This month, with key additions to management, Verena makes a timely opportunity.
A Canadian-based mineral exploration company, Verena boasts an outstanding portfolio of properties including gold, diamonds and gemstones in Brazil. Right now, there are two very big reasons why we should be paying attention: The Volta Grande Project and The Patrocino Project.
Volta Grande Project
The exploration and development of Volta Grande is Verena’s primary focus. The 100-percent owned Volta Grande Project is located on the Xingu River, approximately 50 kilometres southwest of Altamira in the Carajas mineral province of northern Brazil. It covers approx. 50,000 hectares of the Tres Palmeiras greenstone belt, an area known for artisanal gold mining. Roman refers to it as their “flagship project…people are really unaware of the size of this thing, and the potential.”
Volta Grande is an advanced-stage project that hosts a total gold resource (indicated & inferred) exceeding 2.6-million ounces (using a 0.3 gram per tonne cut-off), according to a NI 43-101 Technical Report authored by Roscoe Postle Associates Inc. (“RPA”) last year.
A recently completed independent scoping study shows that Verena can produce at least 200,000 ounces of gold a year at the Volta Grande Project, with a projected 22% rate of return. “We’re trading currently at about $8 – $10 an ounce in the ground. Our peer groups are averaging probably $50 an ounce in the ground, so there are lots of upsides here once people find out about this project,” Roman confides.
What’s most compelling about the Volta Grande project is its potential. At the moment Verena’s total resource of +2.6 million oz. gold has virtually all come from drilling to a depth of only 150 metres, with every indication of continuity to depth. There is high potential to achieve a deposit in excess of 3 million ounces, and very likely more. Roman considers this “a very exciting development,” and rightly so.
Before Verena came along, the property had been mined historically by garimpeiros (independent miners in Brazil) for several decades using both open pit and underground mining methods with several shafts of 80 to 200 metres along high-grade veins.
The Patrocinio Project
The Patrocinio Project is Verena’s second priority. Patrocinio covers approximately 18,700 hectares in the Tapajos gold province in the Para State of northern Brazil. Verena holds the right to acquire 100%-interest.
The Tapajos province is historically the most important gold-producing region in Brazil, with over six million ounces of artisanal production since the 1950s. Public sources indicate that about one million ounces of gold have been produced by local miners at Patrocinio.
In September 2006, The Patrocino Project was optioned to Kinross Gold Corporation, a top-tier gold producer. In 2007, Kinross completed an airborne magnetic survey over the property and collected soil samples every 80 metres on 800 metre spaced lines across the entire property.
Follow-up work focused on the Pista Velha target area, defined by anomalous gold in soils covering an area measuring 2.5 kilometre x 1.0 kilometre. Initial drilling was performed in late 2008. “They really only scratched the surface,” Roman tells us, “Verena is now eager to move in with the potential for a brand new discovery for the company.”
Timely Additions to Management
As announced this month, Roman is making strong additions at the Board level and in management to more aggressively pursue the full potential at Volta Grande and Patrocinio. These changes are in coordination with a $5 million financing, anticipated to complete this week.
Effective today, Stan Bharti, Mark Eaton and Peter Tagliamonte have joined Verena’s Board of Directors. Bharti is the new chairman, Eaton is the new president and CEO and Helio Diniz, based in Brazil, is now VP-Exploration. Roman had earlier served as chairman and CEO and remains as a key director. One of Bharti’s private companies is subscribing for the majority of the financing. Bharti’s team has prior success in Brazil, having earlier brought Desert Sun Mining through exploration, development and into production before selling the company for a significant gain for all shareholders. We anticipate no less for Verena shareholders because of the large undeveloped potential of the Volta Grande Project.
Stan Bharti, P. Eng., Chairman
A professional mining engineer, Bharti has over the last two decades consistently grown multiple mining assets generating billions of dollars in market capitalization. He has raised more than $750 million for these projects and companies.
Stephen Roman, Director
Steve Roman is an entrepreneur/financier who has been involved in the resource industry over the past 30 years and has successfully identified, financed, developed, and brought into commercial production a number of mining and oil and gas projects. His past experience includes acting as Co-Chairman and Director of Gold Eagle Mines Ltd (sold to Goldcorp for $1.5 billion); co-founder of Polar Star Mining Corporation; and Director and senior officer of Denison Mines Limited, Lawson Mardon Group and Zemex Corporation.
Roman is currently Executive Chairman of Exall Energy, Chairman and CEO of Silvermet, President & CEO of Global Uranium and Director of Verena. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Guelph, Ontario in the field of Geology and Geography. He's also a member of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum. Basically, both of these men are worth their weight in gold.
Why Verena?
Strangely enough, Verena has had more attention from industry players than on the street. Word has not hit the street yet that this company has, quite literally, struck gold at the end of the Brazilian rainbow. The reasons to sit up and pay attention to Verena are four-fold:
- The company is operating in an excellent geological, political, and industrial climate for exploration and mining success in Brazil.
- The Volta Grande Project has a +2.6 million ounce gold resource with expansion and infill drilling ongoing.
- Verena is undervalued in relation to its peers, on a “gold resource to market cap” basis.
- And lastly, as the resumes above indicate, Verena now boasts a team of experienced professionals in Canada and Brazil with extensive resource market experience.
Verena should be tracked closely now. For 25 cents/share, it packs tremendous value. For more information, call Steve Roman, director, at 416-368-2998, email info@verena.com and visit www.verena.com to register for immediate notification of news, and to gain more information about the company.
SOURCE: http://www.midasletter.com/news/10022201_Brazilian-bounties-for-verena-minerals.php
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