For Immediate Release
MINERAÇÃO SERRA VERDE NAMES ERIC NOYREZ
AS CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Industry veteran and board of director member will lead
Brazilian rare earth project into next phase
Goias State, Brazil -- [5 September, 2018] -- Mineração Serra Verde (MSV), an advanced development stage rare earth project in central Brazil, announced that it has appointed Eric Noyrez to Chief Executive Officer.
Leading Project Milestones
Previously a member of the MSV Board of Directors, Noyrez was instrumental in many of the project’s recent milestones including achieving industrially representative piloting and product acceptance.
“Since joining the team in 2017, my focus has been to deliver the project on time and within budget, while also ensuring we’re producing a strongly sustainable new source of competitive rare earths,” said Noyrez, who previously served in several executive roles at Lynas Corporation Limited. “We’ve achieved our goals to-date but must continue strengthening our team as well as find partners who can help us take the Serra Verde project to the next phase. I’m very excited about what is to come and am looking forward to my new role with MSV.”
Noyrez previously was also tasked with moving the project further toward implementation and oversaw a four-month long evaluation process to select an engineering firm. Currently, he is working to recruit an experienced industrial project development and operations team to continue the project’s progress, in addition to selecting equipment suppliers.
“Construction will start in early-2019, so right now we working to get the right partners in place and have already issued an RFP for suppliers. We are serious about this next phase and, thanks to the continued support of our capital partner Denham Capital, confident the project will soon be brought into production,” added Noyrez.
The Serra Verde Deposit
Located in the State of Goias, an established mining region, Serra Verde hosts an NI 43-101-compliant resource of 911 million tonnes @ 0.12 percent TREO (based on an exploration area representing approximately 15 percent of the overall Serra Verde deposit area), with high-value critical and heavy rare earths representing more than 60 percent of the resource.
Serra Verde’s ionic clay mineralogy is analogous to the mineralogy currently detained by market-dominating southern China producers, but with rare earth grades three times higher than the average of those deposits, and ore volume 10 times larger. The Serra Verde deposit also benefits from access to roads, water and power within 40 kilometers of the site, plus community support.
The region’s high-value rare earth mix is consistent with projected demand growth from next-generation applications ranging from clean energy and hybrid vehicles to high-performance consumer electronics, industrial and military applications.
In 2017, samples tested were approved as market compliant at all major Rare Earth separators, receiving positive feedback from industry leaders. The project is currently preparing for the engineering phase and is expected to start commercial operations in 2020.
About Serra Verde
Mineração Serra Verde is an advanced development stage rare earth project located near Brasilia, in the State of Goias, a mining friendly jurisdiction. The size of the resource and the project’s ionic clay geology and freely liberated mineralization is similar in geology to the well-known heavy rare earth Chinese deposits. The weathered rock, saprolite ore allows for open pit, truck-and-shovel extraction -- providing for cheaper, simpler processing and lower capex versus peers. Further, a large portion of the deposit is comprised of heavy and critical rare earths, which have a higher value as compared to light rare earths, giving the project the potential to challenge China's dominance of the heavy and critical rare earth market.
About Denham Capital
Denham Capital is a leading energy and resources-focused global private equity firm with more than $9 billion of invested and committed capital across nine fund vehicles and offices in Perth, Houston, London and Boston. In the Mining sector, the firm partners with experienced management teams with proven track records to acquire companies and assets in the metals and minerals sectors that are close to or already in production. Denham targets investments in base metals, metallurgical coal, and industrial and specialty minerals in Australia, Canada, South America and Africa. In addition to Mining Ventures Brasil, Denham’s mining portfolio includes Auctus Minerals, a Perth-based company developing mining assets throughout Australia; Pangea Limited, an African-based company targeting mining assets across all stages of the project life cycle; Pembroke Resources, a team focused on acquiring and developing metallurgical coal assets in the Asia-Pacific region; Santiago Metals, a Chilean mining venture; and Stellar Mining, a mining and exploration company in Peru. For more information about Denham Capital, visit www.denhamcapital.com.
Media Contact:
Krystal Patout
Phone: +1 713 627-2223
Email: kpatout@piercom.com
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