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Company Information for Vane Minerals Group

Company stock charts - 12 Month chart

Exchange AIM; VML


View full financial data

Company Statement

VANE Minerals (VANE) is an AIM listed uranium mineral exploration and development company with a strong focus on North America. The Company has a strong portfolio of projects and was initially self-financed by production from the Silver/Gold Diablito Mine in Western Mexico.

VANE has built a substantial uranium portfolio in the US which, at present, is the main driver for the Company, offering considerable upside in these strong markets.  VANE now has projects in Mexico, Paraguay and the US, incorporating exposure to uranium, gold, silver and copper.

The Company was founded by former members of the international exploration team of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., one of the world's largest producers of copper and gold. The team negotiated exclusive access to Freeport -McMoRan's global exploration database, made up of 7,000 plus files generated over nearly 100 years of exploration.

A highly qualified and experienced management team has been assembled, bringing with them a proven track record in exploration and development, who have spent their entire careers searching for and defining large scale mineral deposits such as Mount Keith, western Australia, Santa Cruz, USA and Escondida, Chile.The Company’s principal objective is to utilise the funds generated from the Diablito Mine, to explore undervalued and under-explored projects, create value in those projects and realise that value through exploitation or disposal to third parties.


Current Operations

URANIUM PORTFOLIO
Since December 2004, VANE has assembled an impressive portfolio of uranium projects in the United States. The Company has identified a number of high-quality projects in the Colorado Plateau Uranium District in the southwestern US. Amongst those accumulated are so far 39 breccia pipe targets, including a number of previously drilled properties, in the breccia pipe district of northern Arizona (which historically produced 23 million pounds of uranium oxide(U3O8)). VANE also has five main stratabound projects in southeastern Utah. These are the Happy Jack Mine and North Wash property which currently have combined historically drilled inferred resources of 300,000 pounds of U3O8, with excellent potential for additional resources, and the North Alice Extension, adjoining the North Alice Mine, which was mined by Homestake until the 1980’s when the price of uranium was too low to continue economically. North La Sal and Pine Ridge are both on the prolific La Sal channel, where the Pandora Mine is currently being operated by Denison Mines. The drilling program in Utah is moving toward an NI 43-101 compliant resource statement on the North Alice Extension and North Wash Projects which is expected in the first half of 2008.

On the northern Arizona breccia pipe projects, VANE has a comprehensive drilling programme in place which has been ongoing since the start of 2007.  VANE has numerous drilling permits in place and plans to continue the permitting process for drilling on all of its northern Arizona pipe targets. The Company recently completed an NI 43-101 report covering its breccia pipe exploration program.  VANE geologists believe that each pipe could potentially contain between 1m and 6m lbs U3O8 as historically shown in breccia pipe deposits.

First round drilling completed at the North Wash Project verified the eU3O8 and V2O5 grades identified by drilling by Cotter Corp in the late 1970’s.  VANE has also completed  a 17-hole drilling program at the North Alice Extension project which was drilled historically by Homestake with delineation drilling and this has so far confirmed the limited historic data available to VANE at this time. Further drilling is planned to produce a NI 43-101 resource within 6 months on the project. Drilling is also planned on the North La Sal and Pine Ridge projects as well as an additional program at North Wash, where the known mineralization is open in several areas.

The company intends to continue to aggressively expand its property portfolio.

DIABLITO – SILVER/GOLD EXPLORATION
Diablito is currently producing at a rate of approximately 50 tons a day to provide gross revenues of approx. $400,000 per month. A drilling campaign of 20 holes, was completed fall 2007, that was designed to upgrade and expand the resource base by exploring the mineralisation down dip to the south as well as exploring offset portions of the vein along strike to the east and west.

This drilling increased the Diablito resource by approximately 52% from 93,000 tonnes to a total of 141,000 tonnes, with an average grade of 6.07 g/t Au and 684 g/t Ag.  VANE now has the option of either increasing daily production above the current rate of 50 tpd or extending mine life by some three years at the current rate of production.  The Company has constructed its own 120 tpd mill and flotation plant close to the Diablito mine site which dramatically reduces transportation costs and removed reliance on third party toll milling arrangements. The mill became operational in October 2007.

PARAGUAY - GOLD/COPPER EXPLORATION
Eastern Paraguay is geologically part of the mineral-rich Brazilian Precambrian Shield but has seen only limited mineral exploration. Anomalous concentrations of gold in no less than 22 areas were recognised and delineated during a diamond exploration programme of stream sediment sampling carried out during the 1990’s by Rex Diamond Corp (“Rex”).

VANE Minerals Sucursal Paraguay is currently investigating two exploration areas covering 119,133 hectares in eastern Paraguay. Field work, primarily consisting of soil geochemistry, has outlined several very prospective areas, one of which measures 14 km by 8 km. In-fill sampling continues to more accurately define the gold anomalies and identify targets for  drilling which is planned for H1 2008. 


Geographical Spread

Southwest USA, Central and Western Mexico, Eastern Paraguay


Board of Directors and Key Management

Steven Van Nort, CEO
Matthew C Idiens, Commercial Director
L Clark Arnold, Director of Geology
Ian H McNeill, Finance Manager
Robert P Jeffcock, Non-Executive Director
David Ingmire, Non-Executive Director

Company Address

18b Charles Street
Mayfair, London, United Kingdom, United Kingdom W1J 5DU

Telephone:+44 (0) 20 7667 6322
Facsimile:+44 (0) 870 460 4162
Email:admin[at]vaneminerals.com
Website:http://www.vaneminerals.com

Annual General Meeting

June 2007

Year End

31 December

Nominated Brokers

Thomas Weisel and Partners and Ambrian Partners Ltd

Nominated Advisors

Ambrian Partners Ltd
2nd Floor
8 Angel Court
London
EC2R 7HP

Major Shareholders

Commerzbank 7.69%
The Nelson Family Trust 6.57%
Roy Williams 6.57%
Richard Harris 5.42%
Alan F Edwards 5.80%
L C Arnold 5.52%
S D Van Nort 3.41%
R P Jeffcock 3.10%

Related News

25/10/07 - VANE Sees Gold In Its Brecciated Uranium Portfolio
31/01/07 - VANE Minerals Funds Uranium Exploration From Gold Production

Most Recent Statement

21/04/08 - Annual Report and Accounts
08/04/08 - Update on Uranium Activities
08/04/08 - Preliminary Results for the year ended 31 December 2007
03/03/08 - Update on Uranium Activities
15/01/08 - Approval of further 8 drilling programs in Northern Arizona Breccia Pipe project
21/11/07 - Start-up of Mill and Flotation Plant & Option to Purchase Agreement on Silver /Gold Prospect

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