Drills Turning. Assays Pending. Brazilian Gold Play Jangada is Already up 130% and looks like has much further to run.
“…Key value catalysts for the coming months include the next round of assay results at Paranaíta, expected soon, and the prospect of drilling at the Molly Gold Project…”
Jangada Mines (AIM:JAN) continues to sustain momentum gained last year by progressing a growing portfolio of highly prospective gold exploration opportunities within established Brazilian gold belts.
JAN’s value has surged more than 130pc over the past 12 months as the company has begun defining the potential of the Paranaíta Gold Project in which it took a major stake last year, and secured an exclusive option to acquire the high-grade Molly Gold Project earlier this month.
Its updated corporate presentation, published this week, highlights a proven capacity to identify shallow, high-grade data-rich projects located in premium gold districts with the potential for low-cost development.
Progressing the Paranaíta Gold Project
JAN took a 33pc interest in the Paranaíta Gold Project last year, with an option to move to 50.1pc. The 7,211-hectare project, located in Brazil’s historically significant Alta Floresta-Juruena Gold Province, comprises a gold-rich porphyry-epithermal system with extensive historical data, a rich artisanal mining history, and structural similarities to producing high-grade gold deposits nearby. More than $2m has been invested in historic exploration, including geophysical and geochemical surveys, geological mapping, trenching, auger and diamond drilling, metallurgical testing, and 3D geological modelling.
Internal estimates suggest the Project, of which JAN has management control, has a Measured, Indicated and Inferred resource of around 210,000 ounces grading approximately 3.165 g/t. JAN says the alignment of widespread gold mineralisation with geochemical anomalies, and their correlation with magnetic structures ‘strongly indicates the potential presence of a large-scale gold deposit.’ At the time of the acquisition 15 occurrences of primary high-grade gold had already been identified along an eight kilometre mineralised corridor. 3,100 metres of trenching had exposed clearly visible mineralised veins.
A 15-hole 1,800 metre diamond drilling programme commenced in October, focused on two of six identified high-grade, near-surface zones, with the near-term goal of expanding the project’s current resource to approximately 350,000 ounces of gold.
An update on exploration work published earlier this month reported preliminary results ‘meeting expectations and confirming the Project’s potential’ for a shallow open-pit mining. JAN suggests a Preliminary Economic Assessment for a 20,000 ounce per annum open pit operation could be published by H2 2026.
A trenching programme – while primarily focused on identifying geological structures – has returned gold grades of up to 4.3 g/t. When combined with previous results and historical artisanal mining data, the programme confirms a mineralised structure extending more than 800 metres in strike length and up to 100m in depth at one of the two targets. The first assay results from the drill programme returned grades of up to 3.1 g/t over 16.2 metres. The rest of the drilling assay results are expected later this month. Several additional promising targets have been identified for future exploration.
The Molly Gold Project
JAN opened up further opportunities earlier this month by signing a letter of intent with present owner BGold Mineração Ltda for an exclusive option to fully acquire the high-grade Molly Gold Project located in Brazil’s Tapajós region. The 6,656.2 hectare project has an independently assessed initial JORC (2004) Inferred resource of 130,000 ounces of gold from 2.1 Mt @ 2 g/t.
More than 2,800 metres of historical drilling has been completed with intercepts including 3.0 m @14.4 g/t, 6.5 m @ 10.5 g/t, 5.07 m @ 8.6 g/t and 1.0 m @ 200.0 g/t. Data indicates that the identified mineralisation (where the initial resource is located) represents a small part of a much larger system. Mapping and geophysics work suggests the mineralised structure continues for at least 500 metres west of the current drilling, beyond the defined 400 metres resource strike length. Existing pits and shafts indicate high-grade quartz veins to depths of up to 30 metres. Widespread alluvial gold can be the surface expression of a large, underlying primary gold system.
The acquisition comprises structured, staged cash and shares payments based on work commitments aligned with exploration success, and grants the present owner the right to retain a 2pc Net Smelter Royalty (NSR). JAN will act as operator during the option period and will fund all exploration and development activities.
JAN said: ‘The Molly Project represents a high-grade, shallow gold project in a prime gold region that aligns strongly with our investment and development criteria … Having signed the LOI, we intend to engage drilling contractors immediately to undertake a low-cost, high-impact, 2,000 metre drill programme to test extensions at the initial Molly 1 target, which will generate additional targets and provide the basis for the next phase of exploration.’
JAN went on to raise an aggregate £1.2m – in which the company’s Chairman participated – to fund initial drilling and exploration work at the Molly Gold Project and further exploration at Paranaíta.
Gold’s long rally
JAN is well positioned to take advantage of gold prices that remain at unprecedented highs, this year’s market correction notwithstanding. Bullion enjoyed a blistering rally through 2025, rising more than 60pc to reach multi-year highs.
The rally was triggered by central bank stockholding after Russian foreign exchange reserves were frozen in response to the invasion of Ukraine, and gathered pace as private investors sought a hedge against the geopolitical uncertainty generated by sluggish worldwide economic growth, on-off threats of trade wars, and fears of currency debasement by governments in developed markets. Precious metals-based ETFs have allowed retail investors to participate to an unprecedented degree.
Now a momentum trade, gold suffered an inevitable drawdown this year when the Trump administration seemed to dial down its aggressive economic policy by nominating the moderate Kevin Warsh to be the next chair of the Federal Reserve, easing market worries the President would compromise the Reserve’s independence by pushing for a candidate promising to slash interest rates.
But precious metals have begun to rebound, moving back up to around $5,000 per troy ounce, indicating higher prices are likely to persist for the foreseeable future. Analysts note that gold prices would still be at historically high levels if they were to fall all the way below $4,000. Steady demand by central banks continues to underwrite bullion’s value.
The Pitombeiras Vanadium Project and other interests
JAN retains interests in other strategic metals ventures, notably the Pitombeiras Vanadium Project, also in Brazil, a fully-owned high-grade vanadium, titanium and iron ore development prospect with the potential for open pit extraction. Vanadium is used as a critical alloying agent to strengthen steel and titanium, and is also essential for the redox flow batteries employed in large-scale energy storage. Over the past five years the company has advanced the Project to the point of a production decision. A 2021 Preliminary Economic Assessment highlighted the Project’s robust economics and clear potential to become a profitable producer of ferrovanadium concentrate.
JAN also has a 7.8pc stake in Fodere Titanium Limited, a UK minerals technology company developing innovative commercial processes and applications in extractive metallurgy, to extract titanium dioxide, vanadium pentoxide and other valuable products from low-grade ores and waste stockpiles.
Outlook
JAN’s shares have kept rising this year as the company has continued to establish itself as a multi-project enterprise commanding significant prospective resources. Key value catalysts for the coming months include the next round of assay results at Paranaíta, expected soon, and the prospect of drilling at the Molly Gold Project. The intriguing Pitombeiras Vanadium Project offers optional upside.
JAN, valued at 1.74p at the time of writing with a market cap of £12.2m, offers both long-term exposure to the energy transition and immediate exposure to the enduring gold bull market. Prospective investors should review the company’s updated corporate presentation for full details on all of the company’s prospects.
Jangada Mines was featured in our 20 Mining Companies to follow in 2026 – Part II (F-Z)
