POTASH and phosphate hunter Aguia Resources (AGR) saw a 29 per cent price spike soon after the open on Friday, and the stock was still up 15 per cent at the close.
So what triggered the sudden interest in this Brazil explorer?
MD Simon Taylor has just been in Canada -- where they certainly know their potash business -- talking to investors and analysts, so there may have been some orders coming out of Toronto.
However, Aguia's Atlantico potash deposit is close to Brazil's only potash mine, operated by Vale, and is just 4km from a project at which a Brazilian company (which plans a Canadian listing) has just announced a drilling program. All three projects are in the Sergipe potash basin, so someone clearly has begun to put two and two together and decided to pick some AGR stock. And there will be no need for costly transport for export. Brazil is the world's fourth-largest consumer of fertiliser but accounts for just 4 per cent of global production. Incidentally, Aguia (it was then Newport Mining) was another stock first mentioned here a year ago. It was 24c then, but hit $1.20 on Friday.
