Most known gold mineralization within the Gurupi Gold Belt is situated along the Cipoeiro, Chega Tudo or Sequeiro Trends. Recognized gold occurrences and historical production on the Maua property are located on-trend with other gold occurrences and artisanal workings along the Sequeiro Trend.

The project area is being acquired by the Company through an application by an agent to the Brazilian National Department of Mining Production (the DNPM) for a new exploration license, which has been approved and is pending formal publication.

The Company’s plan at Maua is to perform detailed soil sampling, trenching and auger drilling, starting with historical artisanal production sites, with the objective of delineating initial drill targets. The initial $120,000 program, to commence immediately, includes geological mapping and geochemical reconnaissance sampling over the entire property, with detailed soil sampling over a selected area.

“The acquisition of the Maua Project is exciting for the geological team, and advances the Company’s strategy of exploring a number of highly prospective properties located in emerging gold belts, each with major historical and/or current artisanal production. Brazil Resources continues to actively evaluate acquisition terms for both early-stage and advanced projects as part of its growth plan,” stated President and CEO Stephen Swatton.

The initial term of the exploration license is three years from the date of official publication. Under the terms of the license, in addition to its exploration programs and other requirements under the license and applicable law, the Company will be responsible for the annual land fees.

The Gurupi Gold Belt is an underexplored and emerging geological region that hosts several large gold deposits. At present, recognized mining companies including Kinross Gold, Jaguar Mining and Luna Gold are active with exploration programs, and are putting mines into production.

Brazil Resources is a mineral exploration company with a focus on the acquisition, exploration and development of mineral properties in the emerging gold districts of Brazil and in additional prolific areas of South America. Currently, the Company’s principal property is the Montes Áureos Gold Project, located within the Gurupi Gold Belt in the state of Maranhão, Brazil.

The new tenement block is called the Catuti block, and is located in the Mato Verde area; 13 km west of the city, in close proximity to the Company’s other key iron ore projects – Rio Pardo and Gema Verde.

The acquisition of the Catuti block of tenements will add to the BMG’s portfolio of iron ore projects in the region, and provide a further step in the Company’s strategy to identify and acquire project areas in Brazil which are highly prospective for large iron deposits and have the potential for development into a low cost, large scale export mining operation.

The Company has, subject to a 7 month period of evaluation, entered into an agreement to acquire the Catuti block, which comprises a block of 4 iron ore tenements, over an area of 80 square kilometers.

BMG paid US$70,000 for the option to acquire the Catuti block, plus payments of US$20,000 per month during the 7 month evaluation period (to the end of March 2012). Provided BMG is satisfied with results of its evaluation drilling, it will acquire a 100% interest in the Catuti mineral claims, subject to paying the vendors US$430,000 upon signing a definitive agreement, and further staged payments totaling US$11 million over the subsequent 3 years.

There will be no requirement for royalty payments to be made. BMG retains a right to withdraw from the project and any ongoing payment obligations at any time. BMG has continued to progress its evaluation of the Gema Verde project, and a maiden JORC resource is anticipated to be delivered in October 2011.

BMG has an exploration target of 370 to 680 million tonnes at 16.6% to 19.9% Fe for the project, and expects the initial JORC resource to fall within this range.

Brazilian Metals Group Limited (formerly Lefroy Resources Limited) is a Perth based company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.  It is focused on the Rio Pardo Iron Ore project in Brazil.

Minas Norte Mineraçao Ltda (a wholly owned subsidiary) is a Brazilian registered company and holds a number of tenements at granted and application stages in the north of Minas Gerais state in southern Brazil. The Rio Pardo iron ore project covers 899.0 square kilometers in 62 tenements.

Hematite enrichment with potential for direct shipping ore (DSO) production is known to occur locally. Of significance is the deep magnetic low in the northern tenement area, cross-cutting a NNW-SSE trending magnetic high associated with banded iron-formation.

Cabral believes this low holds potential for structurally-controlled hematite enrichment.
As with Cabral’s other tenure in this area, the new tenement lies close (<10km) to the new FIOL railway alignment and is 28km NNE from Cabral’s exploration base in Brumado.

The tenement is 257.64HA in area and lies close to another Cabral tenement where previous evidence of hard hematite was located during reconnaissance mapping. This acquisition is part of Cabral’s ongoing tenement acquisition and consolidation program in the region. It is anticipated that further ground will be acquired in the near future.

Under the terms of the Option Agreement, Cabral has paid a non-refundable deposit of R$300,000 (approximately A$181,000) to the local vendor for an exclusive 12 month option period to assess and explore the tenement area’s full potential.

At any time during the 12 month option period Cabral can elect to acquire the project for a cash exercise price of R$900,000 (approximately A$545,000). There are no other royalty or deferred payment arrangements associated with this transaction.

Cabral believes the aggregate purchase price of R$1,200,000 (A$726,000) represents a very attractive entry price for the high grade hematite ore potential within the project area – particularly given its close proximity to the East West Rail Line (or FIOL line) currently under construction.

With this transaction, Cabral has delivered upon its corporate objective of securing a high quality exploration prospect with DSO hematite potential. Whilst this project is a Greenfield one, it has the potential to generate early cash flows for Cabral.

Accordingly this project will be given significant priority in current exploration activity in terms of the Company’s focus and exploration program works.

Cabral is a Brazilian focused resources company seeking to become a significant iron ore producer in the State of Bahia. With experienced management and the ability to leverage off its quality relationships and global contact network, the company targets being a well placed producer by 2015.

The investment positions Centaurus to further expand its regional manganese exploration portfolio and develop a small-scale manganese project that would complement the Company’s emerging iron ore operations.

The Company has secured an option to acquire the Ribeirão Manganese Project, located 120 kilometres from Gerdau’s 4.5mtpa Açominas Steel Facility, 200 kilometres from the open access export port of Sepetiba and 25 kilometres from the open access MRS railway line.

The Project – which comprises three tenements (two with Final Reports approved and one Exploration Lease) covering an area of approximately 7 km2 and which was mined artisanally several decades ago from an historic open pit – has an Exploration Target of 1 to 2 million tonnes grading 25-33% Mn1.

Manganese, which is in high demand from the local Brazilian steel mills, is a logical and high margin addition to the Centaurus project portfolio in south-eastern Brazil. As a frequently used additive (with few substitutes) in making certain steels, manganese complements Centaurus’ emerging domestic and export iron ore business.

Under the terms of the Option Agreement, Centaurus will pay US$60,000 for an exclusive 6-month option over the Project, during which time exploration activities will be undertaken to assess the Exploration Target and its ability to host an economic manganese project for the nearby domestic steel industry.

Centaurus can exercise the option any time during the 6-month period through the payment of an up-front purchase amount and a future Net Smelter Royalty on all manganese production over a specified final product tonnage threshold.

Centaurus has already undertaken a number of field visits for due diligence purposes which have enabled the Company to map and sample the outcropping manganese mineralization.

Commenting on the acquisition, Centaurus’ Managing Director, Mr Darren Gordon, said securing the strategically located Ribeirão Manganese Project, provides the opportunity to build the company’s manganese portfolio in an area that will allow it to supply the domestic steel industry in Brazil.

With manganese being such a high value commodity, Centaurus has the opportunity to supply a customer base in Brazil that simply can’t source enough high quality products and in turn generate healthy returns from a relatively small project base, he added.

Following the renegotiations that Cancana has held with the Board of Directors of Amazon, the Amazon shareholders who originally accepted the Share Exchange Agreement (SEA) proposed on November 22, 2010, have now agreed to the revised terms of the acquisition.

On July 15th, 2011 Cancana announced that it had been in discussions for some time with the Board of Directors and shareholders of Amazon with respect to a renegotiation of the original agreement.

As originally proposed, Cancana would have acquired 30% of Amazon in exchange for 4,504,255 common Cancana shares. The agreement also included an Option to acquire the balance of Amazon, but required that a minimum of 85% of the shares voted by Amazon shareholders accepted the agreement.

The result was that shareholders representing 92.54% of the common shares of Amazon agreed to the originally contemplated transaction. The original transaction, if Cancana had agreed to exercise its Option to acquire the remaining 62.54%, would have required that Cancana issue approximately a further 9,389,880 common shares, for a total share issuance of approximately 13,894,135 common shares of Cancana.

Cancana reopened negotiations for this transaction prior to the projected closing date of March 31, 2011 for the initial 30% acquisition of Amazon. Cancana proposed a revision to the agreement for 85.88% of the common shares of Amazon in exchange for 4,444,798 Cancana shares.

Cancana also agreed to the establishment of a Net Smelter Royalty, (NSR), so as to provide for some additional deferred consideration to the shareholders of Amazon. The amount of the NSR is a total of 3%.

This reduction in the number of Cancana common shares issued for this transaction represents a substantial savings and benefit to the shareholders of Cancana as well as providing for much less dilution of the Company’s share capital.

This reduced share issuance combined with the agreed terms for escrow release over a three-year period by the shareholders of Amazon demonstrate the level of commitment the Board of Cancana have to preserving shareholder value.

As a result of the reduction in value for the acquisition of Amazon, Cancana intends to complete the acquisition of the 85.88% of Amazon as an Expedited Transaction under the rules of the TSX Venture Exchange, as quickly as possible.

Cancana Resources Corp., formerly Sola Resource Corp., is an exploration stage company with assets in Brazil and Canada, has primarily focused on diamond, manganese and gold resource properties.

The transaction amount includes the cost of building infrastructure to develop the mines. NMDC is currently doing a technical, financial and legal due diligence of the iron ore mines which have reserves of 260 million tons, the report said.

According to ET, the target company owns 6 exploratory licenses in the state of Bahia in Brazil. Greystone is also developing a $3 billion iron ore project in neighboring Uruguay, for which, it is seeking a partner, the report added.

NMDC, which accounts for 15 per cent of India’s iron ore production, has been scouting for iron ore mines overseas to cater to the needs of international buyers. Last month, it struck a deal with Australian miner Legacy Iron Ore to buy a 50 percent stake.

According to two people directly involved in the negotiations with Greystone, which is owned by London-based businessman Pramod Agarwal, NMDC is currently doing a technical, financial and legal due diligence of the iron ore mines that have reserves of 260 million tons, said ET.

According to ET, NMDC did not want to comment on the issue as negotiations are still on. The state-owned miner produces 24 million tons of iron ore in India through captive mines.

Pramod Agarwal, is the founder of Zamin Ferrous which owns Greystone and is a major trader based out of the UK. Agarwal built his business primarily by selling iron ore to countries in the erstwhile CIS and is well known in UK commodity trading circles, where a number of players are from India.

The negotiations between NMDC and Pramod Agarwal have been going on for the past two months and the UK-based businessman is expected to visit India next week to continue the talks, said the person who is familiar with the development.

If the talks are successful, then NMDC will have to develop the mines, lay a slurry pipeline and build a railway infrastructure connecting the site to the nearest port. The open pit Greystone deposit is of the magnetite variety, or of lower ferrous content, and will require the setting up for a beneficiation plant.

The Phosphate occurrences are associated with the Pimenteiras shale formation located within the Parnaiba Basin. An arms-length party which includes Brazilian geologists has recognized this geological environment as having the potential for the occurrence of large scale phosphate and potash mineralization and has approached Eagle Star for the land acquisition.

They carried out very detailed reconnaissance litho-geochemical rock chip channel sampling of the Pimenteiras formation outcrops for locating phosphate mineralization in the Parnaiba Basin. Over 222 samples were collected in an area measured 200 kilometers by 60 kilometers.

Most of the samples were collected from outcrops along the main road or nearby access roads. The distance between the samples was variable and was consequence of local conditions, but on an average samples were collected every 3 kilometers. Each sample corresponds to a channel, perpendicular to the layers or bedding. The length of each was variable and averages 3 meters.

Brazil is one of the world’s major agricultural producers. Agriculture represents one third of its economy, 42% percent of it is export based and is responsible for 17.7 million jobs (ANDEF, 2004). However, most of the soil in the countryside lacks Phosphorus (P), Potassium (K) and Nitrogen (N) and there are no economic viable deposits of sulphur.

As the production of fertilizers has not followed the development of agriculture and livestock farming, the country became the 4th major importer of fertilizers and 2nd major importer of phosphate, accounting for 51% of the phosphorous utilized in the country.

In 2006, Brazil imported US$ FOB 1.170 billion in phosphate. This dependency is anticipated to increase continuously unless new domestic sources are found. Therefore any locally produced phosphate from new mines will be consumed locally in Brazil.

The project area has excellent infrastructure consisting of roads, water reservoirs, power lines and a future railroad to be completed by the year 2013. In addition, Piaui state has a large agricultural base which includes soy plantations.

Therefore any phosphate production will be consumed by local markets. Eagle Star plans to commence next stage of exploration effective immediately. This will include mapping, systematic chip sampling and drilling.

The Serra do Lontra Project is found in the State of Bahia, Brazil and consists of 12 tenements, 1 being a granted Exploration License which the Company has acquired and 11 being Exploration License Applications made by Centaurus. The Exploration Licence Applications should be granted within 6 months.

Under the terms of the acquisition, Centaurus will pay a total of US$3 million for the Granted Exploration Lease, with an initial payment having already been made concurrent with the transfer of title to the Company. Further payments are to be made over an 18 month period based on the progress of the exploration activities on the Granted Exploration Lease.

In establishing the Exploration Target of 30 to 50 million tons, Centaurus has mapped the outcropping iron formation on the Granted Exploration Lease only (not the entire Project) over a strike length of some 1.5 kilometers on the main target (Serra Pelada) and over 0.5 kilometers on the secondary target (Boa Esperança) with solid mineralization widths of 40 to 55 meters.

Centaurus will focus its initial exploration activities on the Granted Exploration Lease with a view to defining a JORC Resource which can be developed into a project capable of producing iron ore for international export markets. Approvals work, both environmental and mining, will commence immediately.

The expected low capital expenditure to develop the Project, and the ability to access existing infrastructure, means that Centaurus will be able to apply the same principles being proven in the execution of the Company’s domestic projects.

Commenting on the acquisition, Centaurus’ Managing Director, Mr Darren Gordon, said the move to secure Serra do Lontra as an initial project to commence implementation of the company’s export strategy in Brazil is vital.

The high grade hematite produced in Brazil is highly sought after by international markets and the fact that Serra do Lontra is close enough to the coast to truck ore to open access port facilities will allow Centaurus to generate strong export market returns off a relatively low capital base, said Gordon.

Koch Industries Inc. operates an oil and gas exploration and production business in Brazil through its subsidiary, Koch Petróleo do Brasil Ltda (KPB). The transaction occurred on May 27, 2011 with Central Resources assuming operations immediately.

The acquisition includes six oil and gas concessions, four in the Portiguar Basin of Northeast Brazil and two in the Espitito Santo Basin near Rio de Janeiro. Combined production of the two main fields, Redonda and Ponta do Mel, is approximately 650 barrels of oil equivalents per day (boepd), comprised of approximately 80% oil and 20% gas by volume.

Central Resources projects significant upside to current production in its Portiguar Basin fields through infill drilling and subsequent water flooding. Three of the other fields are highly prospective for exploratory drilling. The Company will commence an extensive development program beginning in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Paul J. Zecchi, President and CEO of Central Resources, Inc. noted that the move marks the completion of a significant acquisition and expansion of the company’s South American operations into Brazil.

The purchase of an existing Brazilian Exploration & Production company represents an excellent opportunity to add quality oil and natural gas assets in an area that has long been of interest to Central, said Zecchi.

There is a natural fit between the companies’ expertise in secondary recovery and other onshore opportunities in Brazil. This complements Central’s vision for growth in both the near and long term, said Zecchi.

Standard Bank Plc, working in partnership with Pareto Commodities LLC (Houston), provided a loan facility to finance the acquisition and provide for the company’s ongoing working capital and capital expenditure needs. The bank acted as sole bookrunner and administrative agent for the financing.

StormHarbour Securities LP, (New York) served as Financial Advisor to Central Resources in the transaction.

Central Resources, Inc. is a privately held, Denver based oil and gas producer and operator. The Company’s core expertise is in secondary recovery methods and other operating techniques that augment existing reserves through prudent field management practices and advanced technologies. Central Resources and its affiliates have offices in Denver, Calgary, Buenos Aires, Amsterdam, Bakersfield and now Rio de Janeiro.

Central is an independent oil and gas producing and operating company with operations in the United States, Argentina, Brazil, The Netherlands, and Canada.

MMX, controlled by Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista, acquired 92.28% of PortX, which is also controlled by Mr. Batista, in an auction worth a total of 6.34 billion Brazilian reais ($3.96 billion) on Brazil’s Bovespa stock exchange Friday, according to a BM&F Bovespa statement.

This followed MMX’s recent public tender offer for shares in PortX, a spinoff from another company controlled by Mr. Batista, LLX Logistica SA, said the Dow Jones Wires.

MMX will ship iron ore it produces in Minas Gerais state, southeast Brazil, through the Sudeste port in Rio de Janeiro state which is being developed by PortX. The port is due to start operations in 2012, said Wall Street Journal.

According to the Journal, MMX Chief Executive Roger Downey said earlier this month the company may strike new partnerships allowing it to ship from Sudeste ore that is produced by other miners in Minas Gerais. This follows a joint mining-and-shipping partnership recently struck between MMX and steelmaker Usinas Siderurgicas de Minas Gerais SA, or Usiminas.

MMX said in a statement late Friday that it will issue 33.26 million new ordinary shares, worth around 464.5 million, reais following the PortX acquisition. This will increase MMX’s total capital to 4.036 billion reais, reported the Journal.

PortX’s existing shareholders, who include Mr. Batista, will gain royalties certificates traded on the Bovespa exchange, in addition to cash or payment in MMX shares for their PortX holdings, MMX said.

The royalties certificates, whose value is linked to iron-ore prices, will start trading on the Bovespa exchange May 24 under MMXM11, along with the new shares being issued by MMX, the company said.

Mr. Downey said in the statement that the acquisition of Sudeste port is a milestone in MMX’s history.  Conclusion of the public offer consolidates MMX as an integrated mining company with a port that boosts operational competitiveness and gives greater access to the seaborne market, said Downey.

Deepwater Sudeste port will initially have the capacity to ship 50 million metric tons a year of iron ore when it starts operations in 2012. It may eventually be expanded to a capacity of 100 million tons a year, to ship iron ore produced both by MMX and other mining companies in the region, Mr. Downey said.