Today's news Brazil Minerals, Inc. (OTCBB: BMIX) FULL REPORT
The company has made all of the cash payments for its ownership position in RST Recursos Minerais Ltda. (“RST”) and says that it has completed the second phase of geological assessment in a new dry locale for diamonds and gold in the valley of the Jequitinhonha River in the State of Minas Gerais in Brazil.
In total, three holes were drilled using the Company’s Banka 4-inch drill, 100 meters apart and on a straight line. All holes showed presence of commercially-viable gravel containing diamonds and gold with the thickness of such layer varying between 1.20 and 4.50 meters. A photograph of such type of gravel accompanies this release. Bedrock was reached in depths varying from 10.80 to 19.20 meters. Initial analysis of the data obtained indicates a strong likelihood of continuity of the gravel layer along the area sampled. In relative terms, this researched locale was small compared to the total surface area of this mineral right, which measures 5.3 million square meters or 1,310 acres.
While the results described are strong, the Company cannot make any assumptions about the extent to which similar results will be seen if drilling or mining is done in the remainder of this large mineral area.
BMIX owns 100% of MDB, a Brazilian producer and seller of polished and rough diamonds, gold bars and industrial-use sand. MDB operates a fully-operational mining concession with the largest alluvial processing plant for diamonds and gold in Latin America and has the Brazilian permit to export its production.
BMIX also owns 50% of RST Recursos Minerais, Ltda. (“RST”), a Brazilian company with 10 mining concessions and 12 other mineral rights for diamond and gold. A number of the RST areas are located near MDB’s plant, in the Jequitinhonha River valley, a well-known area for diamonds and gold for over two centuries.
The company reported last month that it has provided five different types of sand for detailed laboratory analysis for potential use in the fracking industry. BMIX has access to a multitude of different types of sand from its dozens of minerals rights areas and is beginning a process to identify potential locations for supply. There is a sizeable market for fracking sand (or “frac sand”) in Brazil, and Brazilian frac sand is also exported.
The Company has been approached by both a North American frac sand company and a Brazilian enterprise about a possible joint venture. BMIX is in the very initial stages of considering such possibilities.
The BMIX subsidiary RST Recursos Minerais Ltda. (“RST”) has obtained from the local environmental regulatory agency a permit to initiate mining for diamonds and gold in one of its mineral rights areas.
The permit obtained is initially valid for 4 years. BMIX has begun preparatory ground work to be able to start to mine in this new locale within 30 days. The Company had reported in a press release issued on May 26, 2015 some preliminary results of focused research drilling from this RST area. In parallel to mining in one specific subarea, BMIX intends to continue to drill and research additional locales within RST’s large mineral rights area. The mining to be pursued will enable an actual assessment of the local concentrations of diamonds and gold and the data collected will form the basis for additional reporting to local regulatory agencies.
Most of the 22 RST mineral rights areas previously belonged to Tejucana, a famed Brazilian company that enjoyed continuous diamond production for decades. Tejucana mined with dredges within the Jequitinhonha River. Because of current environmental regulations, such mining modality is no longer allowed and therefore BMIX will only mine inland.
Records of Tejucana’s production with dredges survived and show annual diamond production as high as 74,395 carats in 1983 and as low as 15,285 carats in 1967, from the data set available. Tejucana essentially did not mine inland, which is where we will mine.
Geological analysis has shown that the Jequitinhonha River’s course has shifted significantly over the last millions of years. Areas that are inland and dry today could have been the bottom of the river in the past. For this reason, it is believed that inland areas of the valley of the Jequitinhonha River also contain attractive amounts of diamonds and gold.
