Smakman, who founded Crusader Resources (now Big River Gold), has raised more than US$100 million in the past, running the ruler over the Borborema and Juruena gold projects and Posse iron ore projects, and set up Alvo to pursue promising assets in the country.

 

Alvo's team identified Palma's potential in 2018, and had been working on expanding its understanding of the area ever since.

 

The company was the first to win a government-run auction in Brazil in 2019, giving it the opportunity to earn a 100% interest in the advanced Palma base metals project in central Brazil, which contains a number of high-grade copper and zinc volcanogenic massive sulphide targets with inferred JORC resources.

 

Little work has been conducted in the area for more than 30 years.

 

Smakman is looking to change that with his team, including geologist and co-director Beau Nicholls, who was Coffey Mining's principal consultant in Brazil, and in-country consultant Luiz Carlos Silveira Noronha Junior, who was worked with a string of Australian explorers, including Crusader, Centaurus metals, and Meteoric Resources.

 

Alvo is seeking to raise A$8-10 million at 25c to fund exploration over Palma, and surrounding areas it is seeking to acquire that will give it a district-scale opportunity over more than 30km of strike with potential for VMS geology, and precious metals in surrounding areas.

 

Alvo has applied for ten additional exploration areas, and optioned a further 14 areas.

 

The most advanced targets to date are the known deposits at C1 and C3, which host a maiden inferred 44,000 tonnes of copper, 179,000t of zinc and three million ounces of silver, based on a net smelter return of US$60/t.

 

Perth-based lawyer Graeme Slattery is Alvo's non-executive chairman. 

 

Alvo hopes to list in September.