Rio Verde Minerals Corp. was a publicly listed Tau Capital group company (TSX: RVD), which was known for its Brazil-focused fertilizer exploration and development efforts consisting of the Sergipe potash project and several phosphate properties.
Rio Verde Minerals was created in 2011 after Tau’s group company Talon Metals, sold its potash assets in Brazil to Rio Verde in return for shares. These shares were ultimately distributed to Talon shareholders. Prior to the sale to Rio Verde, Talon had invested $1.8m in the project, and in November 2012, Rio Verde was sold for $50m, with Talon shareholders’ portion being $10.2m, rendering an annualized IRR of 198%. Talon interpreted 234 line km of historical seismic surveys and evaluated 286 historical oil and gas wells across 7 target areas, which independent potash consultants Ercosplan used to define 450mt of sylvinite ore and 1.1BT of carnalite ore.