Amid piles of stock carnage across North America, Toronto’s Verde AgriTech Plc (TSX: NPK) (OTCQB: AMHPF) stood tall, notching a healthy gain on news that it was given the regulatory green light to mine as much as 150,000 tons of Super Greensand® annually. Prized by gardeners and organic farmers, greensand is a mineral called glauconite that is mined and manufactured as an organic fertilizer and soil conditioner.
Verde AgriTech’s previous environmental license and mining permit last year was capped the company at only 20,000 tons annually. The company’s flagship product is located in Brazil’s agricultural heartland of Cerrado Verde.
In November, Verde AgriTech said that a pre-feasibility study for its Cerrado Verde project showed a post-tax net present value, discounted at 8%, of $1.98 billion U.S. and a stunning internal rate of return of 290%. Only 12 days ago, the company said it struck a deal for the construction of a processing plant with expected production of 45 tons of it Super Greensand® every hour, with considerations made for future expansion if warranted and allowed.
Verde AgriTech is targeting the second half of 2018 to have the new plant churning out its product, which will soon be available on Amazon.com and open the company’s sales channels to a whole new market. Currently, the company sells Super Greensand® in the U.S. exclusively to organic farmers through local distributors with virtually no exposure to the massive markets for lawn, gardening and organic retail.
"We will work hard to ensure that Verde makes full use of the production capacity now permitted," promised Cristiano Veloso, president and chief executive at Verde AgriTech.
Shareholders believed him and liked the license news, sending shares of NPK ahead 12 cents, or 15.4%, on the day to close at 90 cents. After sinking as low as 54 cents to start the month, shares of NPK have sizzled ahead 66.7% from the low and 47.5% on the month.
