Vena Resources (VEM.to) speaks (from IKN77)

One of the features in IKN77 last week was this  Vena Resources (VEM.to) note, mainly featuring the words of company CEO Juan Vegarra. We reprint here. Enjoy of your day thank you.

Vena Resources (VEM.to): The CEO’s take on recent developments

Since the news (12) of the recent resource number from its Macusani uranium project, Vena Resources (VEM.to) has seen a revaluation and re-rating by the market. This is a good thing of course, so your author decided to run a mail past Vena’s CEO Juan Vegarra and ask if he’d like to write a section for The IKN Weekly on happenings at the company. This he’s kindly done and what follows are his words with no further comment from your author. Enjoy.

Thanks Otto for allowing us to expand on the Macusani press release.   We are very excited to release our first numbers and most importantly we strongly believe there is significant upside to our continuous investment with Cameco.
Our October 14th press release highlights several key points but I want to reiterate what I believe is the core of the release besides the actual resource numbers:
Vena and Cameco’s drilling program has delineated a structural corridor paralleling the small, central gully striking northeast – southwest that is dominantly a higher grade, uniformly disseminated mineralization.  The zone is open to the southwest and there is a marked increase in grade in this direction which will be a major focus of the next drilling campaign.

The intensely disseminated style of uranium mineralization discovered in the Lower zone at Tantamaco greatly enhances the prospectivity of the Quenamari volcanics to host economic uranium deposits. Tantamaco will serve as a model in our search for the large deposits that may be completely hidden or have only minimal exposure at surface.

When you ask me where we are going with this, I asked David Bent, our Vice President of Exploration, to give me his early thinking (and I emphasize “early”) on the intent of the next drill program which should begin in December - depending on government approvals for drilling permits.  David indicated that the drill plan is primarily targeted at increasing the resources at Tantamaco by following the trend of higher grade, disseminated mineralization to the southwest of hole TA-079.   He also highlighted that there are 10 widely spaced holes at Isivilla to follow up on the intersections in IS-06 and IS-04 which could result in a new NI 43-101 resource.

In addition, there were 48 holes totalling 6,200 meters drilled at Nuevo Corani/ Amaritza during the 2006/08 period with mixed results. The mineralization was dominantly fractured - filling within the upper A horizon which is eroded off on both sides of the northeast – southwest trending ridge.  Although the size (and grade) potential appears to be limited, we are confident that a reportable resource could be drilled off fairly quickly.

And finally, from a more wildcat point of view, the Muñani sandstone-hosted mineralization could be very significant.  Outcrop is very sparse in the area underlain by the sandstone. Although grades are overall quite low (400 ppm range), a couple of the small mineralized outcrops are very impressive with fine grained autunite disseminated throughout the rock.  If we were to get a drill hit in the sandstones it could really develop into something large.

Obviously this is all early thinking but it gives you a sense of how excited we are of what we are seeing on the ground and what the potential may be not just in Tantamaco but in several of the other targets in Macusani and Muñani – which you have not heard us mention in a while.

It is clearly understood that we will need to look at the entire Macusani Plateau to justify a large milling operation, but if we are successful delineating somewhere north of 20 million pounds in reserves over the next few years, we are confident Peru will have its first Uranium mill constructed.  Is 20 million pounds in reserves possible?  That is Vena’s Uranium team main challenge without having to resort to any kind of M&A in the near term.

Readers should understand there are a number of challenges still ahead for the Company but the end goal is achievable, we have the technical team in place and great supporting partners allowing Vena to focus on four key areas for the next two years:

•    Azulcocha Region – increase and upgrade resources and construct scalable mill
•    Macusani Uranium Region – increase and upgrade resources leading to feasibility study
•    Esquilache Region – Expand geological understanding of entire caldera, complete an expanded drill program and publish NI 43-101 and support Gold Fields in Amantina.
•    Pucara – Complete underground development to confirm and expand silver/lead/gold resources and permit/construct scalable mill

Going forward, you can expect Vena to continue to monetize its non-core assets via outright sales as well as more joint ventures and perhaps a couple of strategic corporate moves.  We believe the expansive portfolio we accumulated during the first five years has enabled us to define which projects were the better targets to advance across several metals and districts in Peru - now we can focus on bringing a couple of our projects into cash flow which will enable us to fund additional exploration initiatives without diluting our shareholders much further.

Once again – thanks to you, to all IKN readers and to all Vena shareholders for supporting us while we survived the toughest recession we have faced in our lives.  Although there is tons of work ahead of us, we believe we are poised for a strong come back.