For investors hungry for a new way to play rising food prices through potash juniors, a new avenue with experienced management should soon be tradable in Toronto. Toronto-based Rio Verde Minerals, currently a privately held company, plans to list on the TSX Venture Exchange in the coming months.
Rio Verde holds a stake in a 1,079-sq.-km potash property in north-eastern Brazil known as Sergipe, which sits in the Sergipe basin. This basin has seen 30 years of potash exploration and development, mainly by Petromisa – a subsidiary of Brazil’s mammoth oil conglo-merate Petrobras.
Currently the basin is home to the country’s only producing potash mine, Vale‘s (vale-n) Taquari-Vassouras, which has been in operation since the 1970s.
Rio Verde has thus far identified seven drill-ready potash targets that were developed after Rio Verde and Ercosplan – a geological consulting group that specializes in potash deposits – re-modeled the geology of the basin.
Rio Verde has launched an initial program of three holes totalling 4,050 metres that will target similar sylvinite horizons to those found at Taquari-Vassouras, while also testing for carnallite horizons.
From there, the company says it will fast-track exploration towards establishing a National Instrument 43-101 resource estimate some time this year.
To help finance its work, the company has completed a private placement that raised $10 million by issuing 20 million shares at 50¢ apiece.
Rio Verde acquired Sergipe in a transaction with Talon Metals (tlo-t) that closed last December. Talon handed over its rights to the project for 27 million Rio Verde shares representing a 50.5% stake.
The deal also allowed Talon to nominate a majority of members to Rio Verde’s board. Those members included: Warren Newfield, Talon’s chairman; Stuart Comline, Talon’s president and chief executive; and Luis M. F. De Azevedo, Talon’s chief operating officer.
The rest of the Rio Verde board is made up of Rio Novo Gold‘s (rn-t) chief executive David Beatty and Rio Novo’s president Julio Carvalho.
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