Brazil - Maracas Vanadium-PGE Project, Brazil

Maracas: High Grade Vanadium

The 27,000-hectare property is located 813 kilometres northeast of Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, and 250 kilometres southwest of Salvador, the capital of Bahia State. The vanadium deposit is hosted within the Jacare River mafic-ultramafic intrusion.

The Maracas deposit is hosted within gabbros and pyroxenites of the Jacare River mafic-ultramafic intrusion. This sheetlike linear intrusion extends for 70 kilometres along a north-south strike averaging about 1.2 kilometres in width. There are a number of similarities to the Great Dyke including age, rock types, platinum and palladium ratio and style of intrusion as well as the host rock that it intrudes. The PGMs are associated with fine disseminated sulphides hosted within vanadium-rich titaniferous magnetite massive layers. This massive, titaniferous magnetite mineralization at Maracas ranges from 2.0 to 100 metres in thickness with an average true width of 40 metres.

• Located close to infrastructure in mining-friendly Bahia State, Brazil
• 23.2 MT grading 1.27% vanadium pentoxide (V205) (NI 43-101 Measured & Indicated Mineral Resource)
• Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) results announced August 2008 by Aker Solutions
  • 13.1 MT grading 1.34% vanadium pentoxide (V205) (NI 43-101 Mineral Reserve)
  • Grade projected to be highest during first 8 years of production when the mill feed averages 1.94% V205
  • 138 Million lbs of vanadium contained in FeV
  • Estimated payback of 1.9 years; after tax cash flows of $1.329 billion
  • 23 year production plan
  • IRR 43.9%, NPV $489 Million (@ 10% discount)
  • Environmental Impact Study (EIS) was completed as part of the DFS
• The all important location license (LL) has been granted (May 13, 2009)
• Off take Agreement with Glencore International (six years)
• Target production in 2013: avg. annual prod. 5,000 tonnes (10MM Lbs) FeV
• Tremendous exploration potential remains