AguiaResources Ltd. said July 12 that an preliminary economicassessment on its TrêsEstradas phosphate project in Brazil indicated a posttax netpresent value of US$400.0 million, using a 7.5% discount rate, and an internalrate of return of 43%.

The previous PEA pegged a posttax net present value of US$167 million, ata 5% discount rate, and an internal rate of return of 18.7%.

The optimized PEA took into consideration the addition of amore than 600,000-tonne-per-year calcite plant, an updated JORC-compliantmineral resource estimate, improved metallurgical recoveries and the use ofother local infrastructure in addition to roads.

Initial CapEx is now at US$118 million, down from US$184million, with payback in the third year.

The study looked at an open-pit operation, with a mine lifeof 14 years, mining a total of 59 million tonnes.

Production rate will be 466,000 tonnes per year of phosphateconcentrate and 1.6 million tonnes per year of calcite. Phosphate concentratewill be grading 30% to 31% phosphorus pentoxide and calcite concentrate at48.55 % calcium oxide.

The assessment assumes a long-term phosphate concentrateprice of US$210 per tonne and a calcite price of US$47 per tonne.

The audited pit-constrained resource is estimated to be 74.7million tonnes at 4.13% phosphorus pentoxide, comprising 745,000 tonnes of measuredresource at 4.42% phosphorus pentoxide, 15.1 million tonnes of indicatedresource at 4.75% phosphorus pentoxide and 58.9 million tonnes of inferredresource at 3.97% phosphorus pentoxide.

The proposed project will also include a resource of 2.8 milliontonnes grading 4.37% phosphorus pentoxide from the nearby Joca Tavarescarbonatite.

"[W]e look forward to aggressively moving Três Estradasforward into full bankable feasibility and continue with our permitting processwhich is well advanced," said Managing Director Justin Reid.

"We currently have [A$2.9 million] in the bank which issufficient funding to meet our current work plan for the rest of the year andinto 2017."