California-based mining company Brazil Minerals (BMIX) announced in May that it had received $500 000 when it sold Gemological Institute of America- (GIA-) graded diamond common stock and two-year options to four investors.

The GIA-graded diamonds will be delivered over time until December 2015. Other details of the transaction are disclosed on a Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
In April, BMIX filed its audited financial statements with the SEC. In 2013, which was the company’s first year of operation, BMIX revenues – comprising rough diamond sales and gold – reached $791 780.

BMIX is selling a portion of its production as polished diamonds at much higher margins than rough diamonds.

This year, to date, the company has received over $1.5-million in successfully completed cash-raising transactions, including the one announced in May.
BMIX chairperson and CEO Marc Fogassa comments: “This announcement is another example of the company’s ability to attract capital from the forward sale of diamonds that are being produced in our mining operations in Brazil. “This is a validation of our business model and of the quality of our production.”

Brazil Overview
Brazil is the third-largest country in the Americas region, after the US and Canada.

It has demonstrated reserves of several important commodities, such as bauxite, kaolin, iron-ore, niobium and nickel. Brazil is also a major producer of several other key commodities, such as gold, coal and phosphates.

According to global information resource MBendi, mining and minerals production con-tributed almost 2% to Brazil’s gross domestic product.

Iron-ore is considered to be the most import-ant of Brazil’s export commodities, generating yearly revenue of around $2.3-billion. Brazil is also the world’s largest niobium, tin, lithium, tantalum and gemstones exporter. Bauxite, gold and manganese, among other primary mineral products, also contribute positively to Brazil’s mineral export revenues.

Further, the devaluation of the Brazilian real against the US dollar boosted Brazil’s mineral export earnings, with the iron-ore market benefiting most. The country’s iron-ore exports account for 6% of the country’s total export revenues, according to MBendi.

The minerals sector employs about 4% of Brazil’s total workforce, which equates to about 650 000 people. This excludes the estimated one-million artisanal miners currently active in Brazil. MBendi further notes that job losses continue to occur as a result of privatisation and joint venture activities.

Brazil features a range of geological environ-ments, with nearly half of the country covered by younger sedimentary successions, which cover extensive Precambrian terrain, some of which is Archaean in age. The younger cover successions are responsible for coal deposits, evaporites associated with gypsum, phosphorite and barite, and uranium in continental sediments and Parnaíba basins.

The older Precambrian rocks, comprise two Archaean-age cratons – the Amazon and Sao Francisco shields – that are surrounded by Proterozoic mobile belts.

The cratonic areas contain greenstone belts and sedimentary volcanic rocks responsible for gold, silver, iron, manganese and base metal deposits. Massive reserves of iron-ore are found in banded iron formations, which cover parts of the Archaean craton, says MBendi.

The diversity of geological environments found in Brazil gives the country its status of having significant mining growth potential.