resource thus has an in situ value of $4.8 billionAmazon Mining Holding Company Inc has pulled back to a level where our open Good Absolute Spec Value Buy recommendation initiated on December 18, 2009 at $1.63 is once again applicable. Since our last
Spec Value Hunter Comment (Jan 29, 2010) Amazon has reported 43-101 resource estimates at various cutoff grades for a small portion of its 100% owned Cerrado Verde project in Minas Gerais state of southern Brazil. At a cutoff grade of 5.0% K2O the Funchal Norte target has 148,590,000 tonnes of 9.09% K2O, dropping to 64,390,000 tonnes of 11.17% K2O at a 10% cutoff, which is in line with our earlier back-of-the-napkin estimates. To convert that grade into KCl equivalent, we divide by 0.6, which gives us a grade of 18.6% KCL, which when multiplied by a price of $400 per tonne of contained KCL works out to a rock value of $74.40 per tonne. The resource thus has an in situ value of $4.8 billion. This is a very small portion of the 15 billion tonne footprint of glauconite Amazon's consultant Coffey Mining has estimated for the Cerrado Verde project using satellite imaging technology. Amazon has been working on a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) which envisions annual production of 1,000,000 to 4,000,000 tonnes per year of a 10% K2O equivalent ThermoPotash. The Funchal Norte resource could thus be mined for 16 to 64 years. During the course of evaluating the drill results Amazon's geologists came to the realization that the higher grade massive glauconite correlated with the axes (hinges) of the fold system that hosts the glauconite mineralization. The theory is that enrichment took place along these axes during folding. There are numerous sweet spots similar to Funchal Norte within the 15 billion tonne glauconite footprint of the Cerrado Verde belt, some of them with better locations than others. Amazon now has a structural mapping tool to guide prospecting aimed at identifying similar sweet spots for confirmation drilling. Targeting activity is underway as a prelude for additional drilling later this year for those targets deemed ideal in location terms. While the Funchal Norte resource is adequate for the proposed production rate, the scale of this rate is of a proof of concept nature. Amazon's goal is to identify multiple sweet spots for future scaled up development, and select the best located one for definition drilling and the initial production scenario on which the upcoming PEA is based. While Amazon's near term goal is to establish itself as an "alternative potash" producer, the bigger picture goal is to help Brazil wean itself from its potash import dependency. Because achievement of both the short and long term goals will likely require a helping hand from the Brazilian government and the agriculture industry, documenting the existence of multiple glauconite sweet spots helps legitimize the security of supply goal.