BBX Minerals still not talking about trading suspension woes

BBX Minerals has been suspended from trading for nearly five months and shareholders are no closer to finding out when the troubled minnow will again light up the boards.

The company (ASX:BBX) went into a trading halt in August after it was asked by the ASX to clarify an announcement it made regarding “spectacular gold extraction” results from its Ema project in Brazil.

BBX’s shares last traded at 20c on August 18.

BBX has been suspended from trading since August 2017. Source: Investing.com

Chief Jeff McKenzie refused to speak to Stockhead.

BBX told investors on August 14 that an initial pyrometallurgical test conducted on 5kg of a bulk sample taken from the project had delivered extremely high grades of 299.3 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold and 1971.6 g/t silver.

The ASX questioned BBX over its methods in preliminary metallurgical testing work, noting that it had conducted the work without the release of quality-testing (or “assay”) results and asked for a reason.

BBX said in its initial response that it had been unable to produce consistent, reproducible analytical results from the mineralised rock located on its projects in the Apui region of Amazonas State in Brazil’s west.

It was therefore focusing on extracting the precious metals from bulk samples to provide a reliable estimate of the recoverable precious metal content.

The company subsequently suspended its shares from trading to address further ASX queries over the results.

BBX said in its September quarter report that it would remain suspended until results from initial reverse circulation drilling at its Três Estados project or smaller bulk sampling at the Três Estados and Ema projects had been announced.

The company started drilling in September, but progress was hampered by the “extreme hardness” of the rocks it was drilling into and high groundwater pressure.

In late November, the company released results from channel sampling at the Ema project of 2 metres at 0.48 g/t gold and 2 metres at 1.95 g/t, including 1m at 3.44 g/t.

The company is also facing problems at its Juma East project.

BBX is in the process of appealing a Brazilian government decision to force the company to give up part of its landholding because it lies within a national park created by former impeached president Dilma Roussef on May 11, 2016 — his last day in office.

The company received a formal request from the mines department in June last year to relinquish the Boia Velha tenement and significantly reduce the size of the Guida tenement due to the impact of the Acari National Park.

BBX said it had not previously been advised of the creation of the park, which was apparently also unknown to the mines department because it renewed the leases for a further three years in September 2016 and charged annual tenement fees for 2017.

The company has no plans to begin exploration at Boia Velha or re-initiate exploration at Guida for the time being because its current focus is on the high-grade, near-surface mineralisation at the Três Estados and Ema projects.