Largo Resources Ltd. – Developing World-Class Projects in the Americas
Overview
Largo Resources Ltd. (TSXV:LGO) is a Canadian mineral resource exploration and development company focused on undervalued mining assets in the Americas. Largo’s three advanced stage projects are the Maracas vanadium deposit in Brazil, the Currais Novis Tungsten tailings project also in Brazil and the Northern Dancer tungsten-molybdenum deposit in the Yukon. Largo also holds a 100% interest in the Campo Alegre de Lourdes property, a potentially world class iron ore and vanadium project which it intends to further explore. In March 2011, Largo increased its $110 million non-brokered private placement equity offering to $115 million, closing the placement with gross proceeds from both units and subscription receipts totaling $114,951,595.
Investment Highlights
- High-grade vanadium deposit in Brazil
- Potential lowest cost producer of primary vanadium
- Located in mining-friendly and politically stable Brazil
Chief Projects
Maracas Vanadium-PGE Project – Bahia, Brazil
The Maracas Project is located in the municipality of Maracas in eastern Bahia State, Brazil. The property consists of 27,000 hectares with two exploration concessions approximately 813 kilometers northeast of the Brazilian capital Brasilia and 250 kilometers southwest of Salvador, the capital of Bahia State. Access to the property is through a secondary highway and gravel road located to the west of the town of Maracas. The Maracas project also has access to water, electricity and railroads within a reasonable distance.
The project is host to a high grade vanadium deposit within the Jacare River malfic-ultramafic intrusion. The intrusion extends for 70 kilometers in length along a north-south strike and averages just over a kilometer in width. Largo’s Definitive Feasibility Study delineated a Mineral Reserve estimate of approximately 13.1 million tonnes grading at 1.34% vanadium pentoxide, including 8.7 million tons grading at 1.94% vanadium pentoxide, which is contained within a 23.2 million tonne Mineral Resource grading 1.27 vanadium pentoxide and is expected to produce 155 million pounds of vanadium over the project’s lifetime.
At the end of March 2011, Largo made a $6 million payment to Metais Nao Ferrosos Da Bahia Ltda. (M.N.F.B.) for an additional 10% interest in Maracas bringing the company’s total interest in the project to 90%. In April 2011, Largo closed a $115 million private placement financing of units and subscription receipts permitting an agreement with Itau Brazil for a bridge loan of $6 million in order to complete payment to M.N.F.B..
The company engaged Promon Engenharia Ltda. of Sao Paulo to engineer and develop the project at the end of April. The engineering work is underway and priority targets identified during the ongoing ground exploration program will be explored in the 11,000 meter exploration drill program set to begin immediately. The program is expected to take 9-12 months to complete and aims to double the current resource estimate. Initial production is targeted to begin by Q1 of 2013.
Currais Novos – Rio Grande de Norte, Brazil
The Currais Novos Property in Rio Grande de Norte, Brazil consists of reprocessing and recovering tungsten from two tailings deposited during ore processing at Barra Verde and Boca de Laje tungsten mines.
Development at the Currais Novos project is advancing rapidly in accordance with projected deadlines. Plant and site cleaning has concluded and the second phase of construction has commenced, consisting primarily of reforming plant floors and existing rooms, erecting equipment bases, and constructing the power substation building. Initial processing of material commenced in July 2011.
Largo announced it has entered into a financing arrangement whereby certain advances may be made in different amounts and tranches up to an aggregate amount of $4.0 million, which it intends to allocate to production costs at Currais Novos. The company has also entered into a definitive supply agreement regarding tungsten produced at Currais Novos.
The Currais Novos region is thought to have great potential for significant exploration discoveries, and Largo actively seeks additional properties to expand and extend the life of the project. In January 2011, Largo signed a Letter of Intent to secure the acquisition of four tungsten exploration properties, namely Acauã, Cafuca, Galo, and Recanto, which together cover 4,595 hectares in the Currais Novos District. Acauã has good underground showings; Cafuca is an old Anglo-American mine from the 1980s; Galo contains the continuation of the down dip mineralization mined on Cafuca; and Recanto is an early stage exploration target in the same belt.
Campo Alegre de Lourdes Iron and Vanadium Deposit – Bahia, Brazil
The Campo Alegre de Lourdes property hosts a large potentially world class iron, titanium and vanadium deposits. The 9,275-hectare property is located 875 kilometres north-northeast of Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, and 650 kilometres northwest of Salvador, the capital of Bahia State. These Fe-Ti-V deposits are hosted within the Campo Alegre de Lourdes mafic-ultramafic intrusion which consists of a sequence of pyroxenite, gabbro and gabbro-anorthosite intrusive rocks. The mineralization consists of wide zones of massive titaniferous magnetite and ilmenite mineralization with high Iron (50%) and V2O5 (0.75%) grades. The deposits are open along strike and at depth. The mineralization has been traced for eleven kilometres along strike and two kilometres wide and are characterized by 11 deposits aligned roughly north-south as elongated hills.
The property has had a significant amount of work done in the past in particular between late 1970′s to early 1980′s by the CBPM (Companhia Baiana de Pesquisa Mineral) the mining agency for the state of Bahia. Work has consisted of geochemical soil sampling, airborne geophysical survey, geological mapping, prospecting, preliminary metallurgical test work, petrographic studies and 60 holes totalling 5,257 metres of diamond drilling. This work resulted in a reported historical mineral resource (non-compliant), estimated by CBPM of 133 million tonnes of 50% Fe, 21% TiO2, and 0.75% V2O5 to a vertical depth of less than 60 metres.
All drill cores from the previous work have been moved to Largo’s core storage facility at its Maracas Vanadium Project to complete systematic sampling and logging of the drill cores in order to confirm the Fe, TiO2 and V2O5 values of the deposits. Results will be used to do geological modelling and a new resources estimate.
Metallurgical testwork was carried out in 2011 and pending encouraging results, the company will develop an extensive exploration plan with the goal of targeting 1.5 billion tones. The goal would be to have a NI43-101 compliant resource estimate completed by the end of Q1 2012 in order to move forward with the projects development. Largo is aiming to expand the inferred resource at Campo Alegre to 1.5 billion tonnes by June 2012.
Northern Dancer Tungsten-Molybdenum Deposit – Yukon Territory, Canada
The Northern Dancer Tungsten-Molybdenum Project is located in Canada’s Yukon Territory and hosts the world’s largest undeveloped tungsten-molybdenum resource. The successful 2008 drill program at Northern Dancer found a NI 43-101 compliant resource estimate of 545,236,000 tonnes at a grade of 0.076% WO3 and 0.024% Mo.
AMC Mining Consultants (Canada) Ltd. completed the NI 43-101 compliant Preliminary Economic Assessment at Northern Dancer, and results announced in February 2011 confirmed potential for the low cost production of tungsten and molybdenum from an open pit operation. Largo plans to move towards production, proceeding with the completion of a preliminary feasibility study immediately.
The term during which the remaining 30% interest in Northern Dancer can be purchased was formally extended until May 15, 2011. Largo currently holds a 70% interest in the project, and terms of the option require Largo to pay Strategic Metals Ltd. US$5 million for the final 30% interest, which Largo intends to pay with funds from warrants and options that expire in early May. Largo plan to commence a feasibility study upon completion of a pre-feasibility in Q1, 2012, the Company aim to complete the feasibility study in December 2012.
Management
Mark Brennan , President, CEO & Director
Founding member of Desert Sun Mining with over 20 years financing experience in North America & Europe. Founder and principal of Linear Capital, Brasoil Corporation, James Bay Resources, Morumbi Oil & Gas and former President, CEO and Chairman of Admiral Bay Resources.
Tim Mann , Chief Operating Officer
Mining Engineer with extensive international operations and management experience in mine engineering, development and mine operations with SNC Lavalin, Placer Dome and Goldcorp.
Andy Campbell , Vice President, Exploration
Over 30 years experience in mining and exploration, including LAC Minerals and Noranda.
John Laurie , Chief Financial Officer
Over 30 years of accounting and financial management experience.
Kurt Menchen , General Manager, Brazil
Former Jacobina Mine Manager, Brazil. Mining Engineer with over 30 years experience including Anglo Gold and Desert Sun Mining.
Kevin Brewer , General Manager, Yukon
Geologist with over 20 years of mining and exploration experience combined with extensive knowledge of regulatory and environmental assessment processes.
Rodrigo Costa , Project Manager, Brazil
Most recently Metallurgy Manager with a major mining company in Brazil. His previous experience includes commissioning and constructing mines as well as acting as General Manager with one of Brazil’s largest private mining companies.
Board of Directors
Stan Bharti , Chairman
Over 25 years xperience in operations, public markets and finance. Has raised over $500 million in the last decade. Former founder and Chairman of Desert Sun Mining.
Mike Hoffman , Director
Professional mining engineer with over 25 years of experience; former VP at Yamana Gold(DSM).
Mark Brennan , President & CEO
Founding member of Desert Sun Mining with over 20 years financing experience in North America & Europe. Founder and principal of Linear Capital, Brasoil Corporation, James Bay Resources, and Morumbi Oil & Gas.
William Clarke , Director
Former Ambassador to Brazil and Sweden. Former Advisor to Desert Sun Mining.
Alberto Arias , Director
Mr. Alberto Arias is the founder and President of Arias Resource Capital Management LP. Mr. Arias has over 15 years of experience in the field of international mining finance, and is widely recognized as an industry expert, having been ranked for five consecutive years as the #1 equity research analyst for the metals and mining industry in Latin America by leading polls such as Institutional Investor. Prior to founding Arias Resource Capital, Mr. Arias worked for eight years at Goldman, Sachs & Co., most recently acting as Managing Director and Head of Equity Research for metals and mining in the U.S., Canada and Latin America.
Prior to Goldman Sachs, Mr. Arias worked for 4 years at UBS as Executive Director and Analyst covering the Latin American metals and mining sector. Mr. Arias has engineering degrees in mining and metallurgy and an MBA (B.Sc. from the Colorado School of Mines and three Masters degrees from Columbia University), mining industry operational experience, and holds a patent for a gold mineral processing technology. He was raised in a family with a three-generation tradition of founding and managing private mining companies in Peru.
Santiago Pardo , Director
Dirk Donath , Director
Dirk Donath is Senior Managing Director and Partner at Eton Park Capital Management, responsible for Eton Park’s private equity and direct investment activities in Emerging Markets. Eton Park is a global, multi-disciplinary investment fund that initiated activities in November 2004. With offices in New York, London and Hong Kong, the firm has a capital base of over US$ 14 billion. Prior to joining Eton Park, Dirk was a Founding Partner and Managing Director of Pegasus Capital. Pegasus is a principal investment firm focused on distressed private equity, turnarounds and restructurings in Latin America. Before founding Pegasus, Dirk was a Partner of McKinsey & Company and was based out of the Mercosur Office in Buenos Aires.
Dirk was head of McKinsey’s Latin American Consumer Goods and Retail Practice and also a leader of the Latin American Corporate Finance and Strategy Practice. He originally joined McKinsey in 1988 and previously worked in the New York, London and Madrid offices. Dirk graduated cum laude with honors from Yale University with a BA in Economics (with distinction) and studied international relations at Oxford University in England. He received an MBA degree from Harvard Business School.







