Tag Archives: Technicontrol Consultoria E Etrinamento Empresarial Ltda

Cadence Minerals (AIM/NEX: KDNC; OTC: KDNCY) is pleased to announce that DEV Mineração S.A (“DEV”) has already delivered positive operational progress in the redevelopment of the Amapa Iron Ore Project (“Amapa”).

Highlights:

• Pre Feasibility Studies (“PFS”) have commenced on the rehabilitation of;
  • The beneficiation and processing plant;
  • The railway and associated infrastructure between Pedra Branca and DEV’s port at Santana;
• Working alongside Companhia Docas de Santana (“CDSA”), DEV has been able to load two vessels simultaneously with iron ore for the first time.
• The Jack-Up rig at the Santana port is currently being righted and recovered.
• Continued maintenance of the tailings dams, and the start of work required by the ANM (Agência Nacional de Mineração).

As previously announced on the 10 February 2021 and on the 27 July 2021, the Commercial Court of São Paulo (“the Court”) ruled that DEV could export sufficient iron ore to realise a total US$20 million profit from the Amapa stockpiles at the port (US$ 10 million was permitted on each occasion). A portion of these funds is being used to redevelop Amapa, including commissioning studies, capital projects and working capital.

DEV, working alongside Cadence and Indo Sino Pty Ltd (“the Investors), have been progressing the redevelopment of Amapa in several key areas.

Pre-Feasibility Studies

DEV has appointed IDG Engenharia E Consultoria LTDA (“IDG”) to carry out the engineering and conditioning study on the beneficiation and processing plant at the Amapa mine. IDG is a Brazilian ISO approved engineering and consulting company with a broad range of experience in the sector, having worked for Vale, Arcelor Mittal, Kinross, London Mining and Anglo American. They also have specific expertise at the Amapa mine, having consulted on the project previously.

In addition to the engineering and conditioning study, IDG will review the power supply options for the mine and plant, particularly the possibility of connecting to the grid network, enabling the mine and plant to be powered predominantly by lower-cost renewable energy.

DEV has appointed Technicontrol Consultoria E Etrinamento Empresarial Ltda (“Technicontrol”) to carry the PFS work on the railway. Technicontrol has mobilised to Amapa and will begin inspecting some 193km of rail and associated infrastructure, which transverses across the State of Amapa from Pedra Branca to the DEV’s port at Santana. Techincontrol will also review and cost the locomotive and rolling stock requirements for the mine. Technicontrol also has previous experience at the Amapa project.

Both of these studies, once complete, will form part of the PFS. In the coming months, we expect DEV to appoint a consulting and engineering firm to start work on the port studies and a geotechnical investigation of the mine.

Increased Iron Ore loading capacity at CDSA, Amapa

Working with CDSA, DEV has established and tested a process at CDSA’s port in Santana to simultaneously load two (45,000 ton) vessels with iron ore. This operation was carried out early last week when two vessels were loaded at piers 1 and 2 at CDSA with iron ore stockpiled at DEV’s port.

DEV carried out this trial operation by loading ore owned by a third party. The shipments of DEV’s own iron ore, (part of the judicial recovery process approved by the creditors in July 2019) were carried out at a commercial rate. With this increased capacity, DEV will ship its own stockpiles at a faster rate than previously expected.

DEV is scheduled to complete its fourth and last shipment under the court judgment granted earlier this year in August. The four shipments of 58% beneficiated iron ore has netted approximately US$10 million to DEV. After this fourth shipment, DEV will begin the shipments to fulfil the second court judgment announced on 26 July 2021.

Jack-Up Rig

As part of the port reconstruction carried out after the Amapa port collapse in 2013, a jack-up iron ore loading platform was partially installed. In subsequent years, the platform began to list and partially sank due to lack of funds and maintenance. DEV has however been committed to securing and recovering the jack-up platform, and to that end engaged a marine engineering firm that began work in July to refloat the platform.

Tailings Dams

As previously announced, DEV began tailing dam maintenance earlier in the year, engaging a civil engineer and two geotechnical consulting firms to advance the work programme to include monitoring, geotechnical stability testing and compliance with statutory reporting. The end goal is to ensure that the current dams will be suitable for future operations amid Brazil’s more stringent regulatory environment.

Cadence CEO Kiran Morzaria commented, “On behalf of the Cadence Board, I am pleased to report solid operational progress at Amapa in regard to recommissioning work at the mine, port and railway. The ongoing sales from our iron ore stockpiles are providing sufficient funding to complete the PFS, along with some of the work required to bring the complete operation back to life.”

“We remain enthused by the opportunities and possibilities that a fully recommissioned Amapa mine will deliver, and I am delighted to see local contractors and companies already engaged with us to make it happen .”

“I look forward to reporting further progress to you in the coming weeks and months”

Cadence Interest in the Amapa Iron Project

As previously announced, in early September 2020, we announced that DEV Mineração S.A’s (“DEV”), Cadence and Indo Sino Pty Ltd (“the Investors”) agreed in principle to the settlement terms proposed by the Bank Creditors. The principal commercial terms agreed in 2020 have not varied materially, and at the time of writing, the final settlement is currently with the Bank Creditors for comment and/or approval.

The execution of a settlement agreement with the Bank Creditors would represent the satisfaction of Cadence’s remaining major precondition to make its initial 20% investment in the Amapa Project. On completion of the conditions and the release of the Cadence escrow monies, Cadence will become a 20% shareholder in the Amapá Project via our joint venture company, which will own 99.9% of DEV.

– Ends –

Qualified Person

Kiran Morzaria B.Eng. (ACSM), MBA, has reviewed and approved the information contained in this announcement. Kiran holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Industrial Geology) from the Camborne School of Mines and an MBA (Finance) from CASS Business School.

Forward-Looking Statements:

Certain statements in this announcement are or may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as ”believe” ”could” “should” ”envisage” ”estimate” ”intend” ”may” ”plan” ”will” or the negative of those variations or comparable expressions including references to assumptions. These forward-looking statements are not based on historical facts but rather on the Directors’ current expectations and assumptions regarding the Company’s future growth results of operations performance, future capital and other expenditures (including the amount. nature and funding sources), competitive advantages business prospects and opportunities. Such forward-looking statements reflect the Directors’ current beliefs and assumptions based on information currently available to the Directors.  Many factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements, including risks associated with vulnerability to general economic and business conditions, competition environmental and other regulatory changes actions by governmental authorities, the availability of capital markets reliance on key personnel uninsured and underinsured losses and other factors many of which are beyond the control of the Company. Although any forward-looking statements in this announcement are based on what the Directors believe to be reasonable assumptions. The Company cannot assure investors that actual results will be consistent with such forward-looking statements.

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014