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Searching for ASX companies in Brazil

Company Commodities Market Cap
lithium in Oz Minerals Gold and copper $5.45 billion

Jervois Global Cobalt and nickel $714.28 million
‘elephant country’ Centaurus Metals Nickel $371.58 million

Latin Resources
Lithium
$125.45 million
Big River Gold Gold $80.99 million
ollowing a July listing on the ASX, from identified out- Tombador Iron Iron ore $51.17 million
FOceana Lithium Ltd chairman Gino cropping. BBX Minerals Precious metals $46.17 million
Vitale is confident of unearthing critical “We’re fortunate
minerals success out of Brazil – a country enough that we’re Aguia Resources Phosphate and copper $23.19 million
historically recognised for its coal and iron not starting from Oceana Lithium Lithium $22.21 million
ore mining. scratch,” Vitale
Oceana brings to the bourse the Solo- said. “The fact that Meteoric Resources Gold $18.31 million
nopole lithium pegmatite project, covering we’ve inherited a Alvo Minerals Precious metals $16.02 million
114sq km of ground across eight permits in large database
the coastal state of Ceará. from our previous
Recent foreign success in Latin America predecessors is dustry, it’s not easy to find people with ex-
has typically been in the likes of Argentina, giving us a head start when it comes time perience,” Vitale said. “We’ve been fortu-
Chile, Ecuador and Peru; ranging in com- to identify potential drill targets. nate to secure Sebastian and others who
modities from gold to copper to lithium. “There’s been about three years of work were involved in exploration and produc-
However, a combination of Brazil’s geol- done on the project and that included map- tion with Galaxy. It always helps when you
ogy, business fundamentals and indicators ping and remote sensing. The artisanal have people who know the rocks.”
for revitalised foreign trade has Vitale bull- mines also haven’t gone any deeper than Meanwhile in July, the Brazilian Govern-
ish the company’s $6 million in IPO money 10m because of the hard rock.” ment enacted a policy change for lithium
will be spent wisely. Oceana’s pre-IPO register included a exporters to no longer need approval from
“It’s fair to say Australian companies cornerstone cash injection from Sichuan the Science and Technology Ministry to
have not had the experience in Brazil that Yahuan Industrial Group. The Chinese ship their product.
they have had elsewhere, like in Chile, but company is the third largest lithium hydrox- The move to cut red tape comes as
I think that is changing,” Vitale told Pay- ide producer in the world and a major sup- Brazil seeks to be a standout lithium ex-
dirt. “I think it’s changing for a very simple plier to Tesla Inc and other notable players porter after prices peaked as high as
reason: the country is highly prospective in the battery space. $US78,000/t in April.
geologically, it’s incredibly well-endowed Vitale said such an investment was in- Mines and Energy Minister Adolfo Sach-
dicative of hungry end-users swimming sida said the Government’s decision could
upstream to safeguard against supply redirect lithium investments away from
shortages. Eastern Europe and Asia towards Brazil.
“They [Sichuan] want to align themselves “That increases legal certainty and pre-
with upcoming producers so as not to miss dictability [for companies] while reducing
the boat,” he said. “It’s a very interesting bureaucracy,” Sachsida said.
arrangement because we haven’t had to The policy change comes four years af-
give away any offtake rights. They’ve sim- ter the Port of Rotterdam Authority, man-
ply made an investment to back the explo- ager of Europe’s largest port, purchased
ration team.” 30% in the port of Pecém in Ceará.
The Oceana board includes execu- Cargo throughput at the Port of Pecém
tive director Sebastian Kneer, formerly of has grown at an average of 26% each year
Galaxy Resources, non-executive direc- over the past decade, handling up to 17mt
tor Qingtao Zeng who also serves on the of cargo in 2018.
board of North American lithium explorer Such a collaboration is an indicator of
Winsome Resources Ltd, and non-execu- strong business fundamentals for Vitale.
Gino Vitale tive director Simon Mottram. “The port of Pecém is being established
“We are fortunate to have a local direc- with the cooperation of Rotterdam to in-
and it’s unexplored. It’s huge, it’s elephant tor, Simon, who has been a resident of corporate their systems for exporting bulk
country.” Brazil for more than 12 years and is flu- commodities,” he said. “[Ceará are] very
Solonopole has been subject to shallow ent in Portuguese. That helps a lot,” Vitale serious about developing their industries
artisanal mining and the work of a previous said. and they’re doing something about it, not
company which lost the project to Oceana “We’re very keen to hit the ground run- just talking about it.
following the breakdown of a JV. This has ning, we’ve inherited the ‘A Team’ from “About this time last year, Fortescue
left guidelines for Vitale and his team to Galaxy Resources, in particular Sebastian Future Industries even signed a MoU with
explore deeper when it comes time to spin Kneer.” Ceará to develop their hydrogen industry.”
the drill rig. Galaxy merged with lithium producer – Fraser Palamara
A previous soil sampling programme at Orocobre last year to operate as Allkem
the project took place over a 400 by 400m Ltd, the Australian-Argentine lithium pro-
grid and Oceana plans for a more refined ducer valued at more than $6 billion.
follow-up programme with some guidance “Because lithium has been a nascent in-

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