Mine site and Plant 2 Construction UpdateHello Fellow Verde Shareholders,
I have just received a series of aerial photographs and videos taken on August 1 2021 over the Verde mine sites east of Matutina which provide a very detailed and interesting update on activities on the ground in Brazil.
Comparing these current pictures to pictures captured in the past allows you to readily see the areas that have changed and how the development of the mine site is unfolding.
The smaller northern pit remains essentially unchanged, except that equipment that had been positioned at the site has now gone and it appears this particular part of the deposit is not being actively worked at this time. That being said the pit appears significantly deeper than it did in earlier photos.
The larger southern pit is clearly where the bulk of the hundreds of thousands of tons have been extracted. The original traingular shapped quarry now shows significant excavation in the eastern two thirds. Based on the recent pictures, the deepest part of the quarry is likely over 100 feet deep with a steep roadway leading from the bottom up the south eastern perimeter to provide truck access. There is cuurently no equipment visible at the bottom of this pit (or at least during the time frame the photos were taken)
What is now very striking is the considerable expansion to the north east of the original triangle, roughly rectangular in shape, that appears to have doubled the surface area of the deposit now being worked. The longest side of the rectangle looks to be approximately 200 meters and is being worked west to east. In the videos from August 1 2021 you can clearly see 2 backhoes working two sperate extraction areas, loading 2 trucks at the same time. It also was able to observe a work flow that I would suggest speaks to an efficient and effective operation. While some fully loaded trucks depart for the run to the Sao Gotardo processing plant, rather than sitting idle the backhoes fill trucks that haul the raw material to a holding area near the entrance to the mine, and immediately return to be filled again. This carries on until an empty truck from the processing plant run returns, which is then immediately loaded and heads off again.
The temporary holding was about half filled, with about 50 truck loads identifiable. I am guessing this inventory is used to fill trucks for the processing plant when non extraction work is required at the production areas - extending road access, drilling, etc. All in all it certainly looks like development is cracking ahead at a fast pace, which is great to see and have validated by these third party pictures.
The photos also covered the new access road construction to the site of Plant 2, to the north of the current extraction area, The road bed is complete right up to the plant site, and it appears the plant site has been leveled. However, ther is as yet no sign of any mobilization of any equipment or materials that would indicate preparation for construction has commenced.
In previous news releases over the last couple of years, the Company has recorded the planting of over 4,000 trees around the mine site as a demonstration of its commitment to eventually return the area to its natural environment when the glauconite siltstone ore has been removed. The planted areas to the north of the first pit are readily identifiable from the neat patterns of tress in equally spaced rows. Unfortunately, about half the trees appear to be dead or dying, and stand out in stark difference to the lush green foilage of the healthy trees. It looks like they will need to revisit and replant the failed plants.
Let me know if you have any questions I can help answer.
Cheers,
S.