To the Shareholders,
During our first year, we established a solid foundation with exceptional opportunities for growth. Beginning in the spring of 2006, the Company’s predecessor, Denroy Resources Corporation, completed significant financings and acquired Goodsprings Development and it’s portfolio of gold exploration projects in many prolific mineral belts in Nevada. Following the name change to Nevoro Inc., we began trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange on September 17th, initiated first phase drilling on targets at our St. Elmo, Silver King, Cross and Boulderfield projects, and started mapping and sampling programs on other projects including Dome Hill.
Exploration on these projects has been positive but not fully conclusive and more work is needed to better understand the mineralizing systems. Efforts will resume on some of the better targets once the field season begins.
Subsequent to year end, we announced plans to acquire two junior companies with advanced exploration/pre-development stage assets. Nevoro will issue approximately 20 million shares to acquire Aurora Platinum Exploration, formerly Aurora Metals (BVI) Limited, and its Stillwater Ni-Cu-Co-Cr-PGE project in Montana, and an additional 28 million shares to acquire Sheffield Resources Ltd. and its Moonlight Cu-Au-Ag project in northeastern California. Both acquisitions are expected to close before July 31, 2008 subject to the respective approval of the shareholders of each company.
The 4,600-acre Stillwater project is located in the Stillwater Intrusive Complex and is adjacent to the Stillwater Mine, North America’s largest Platinum Group Metal (PGM) producer. The Stillwater Intrusive Complex is analogous to the Bushveld Complex in South Africa, which produces almost 80% of the world’s Platinum and a significant amount of the world’s chrome.
In addition to the potential for PGM, previous exploration has identified numerous nickel-cobalt-copper and chromium targets at the project. Some of the more advanced historical targets include the Moat Mine with a historic resource estimate of 23 million tons averaging 0.62% nickel, 0.45% copper and 0.062% cobalt based on 127 drill holes totaling 33,000 m. Less established targets in the Nye Basin area and the Benbow area bring the mineral inventory to approximately 100 million tons with comparable nickel, copper and cobalt grades (Nevoro has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimates as current “mineral resources” or “mineral reserves” as defined in NI 43-101, nor is Nevoro treating the historical estimates as current mineral resources or mineral reserves).
According to the United States Geological Survey, the Stillwater Complex also hosts the largest known historical chromite resource in the western hemisphere, two of which were mined during World War 1, World War 2 and up to the end of the Korean War. The four deposits total approximately 50 million tons averaging approximately 22% Cr2O3. The Aurora properties include historical resources of 14 million tons of 23% Cr2O3 at the Mountain View mine, 9 million tons of 20% Cr2O3 in the Benbow East deposit, and 6 million tons of 22% Cr2O3 in the Nye Basin deposit (Nevoro has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimates as current “mineral resources” or “mineral reserves” as defined in NI 43-101, nor is Nevoro treating the historical estimates as current mineral resources or mineral reserves).
The 6,900-acre Moonlight project is located 140 km northwest of Reno, Nevada in Plumas County, California at the terminus of the Walker Lane mineral belt and the Mother Lode gold belt. Moonlight includes two important historical producers, the Engels and Superior mines, which, from 1918 to 1930, jointly processed ore with 80% recoveries in the first all-flotation mill in the United States and produced more than 160 million pounds of copper, 23,000 ounces of gold and 1.9 million ounces of silver from ores averaging 2.2% Cu, 0.5 oz/ton Ag and 0.005 oz/ton Au.
The Moonlight project includes 7 porphyry copper and copper oxide open pit targets that were explored by Placer Amex in the 1960s. The most advanced target is Moonlight Valley, which is the subject of two NI 43-101 Technical Reports completed since 2005. The 2007 Technical Report concludes that Moonlight Valley hosts indicated resources of 162 million tons averaging 0.324% Cu (at a Cu cutoff of 0.2%), 0.003 oz/ton Au and 0.112 oz/ton Ag and inferred resources of 88 million tons averaging 0.282% Cu, 0.003 oz/ton Au and 0.089 oz/ton Ag. The other targets are less advanced but could help Moonlight return to its former status as a significant US copper district.
The 2007 Technical Report notes that Placer recognized significant amounts of copper were lost during their drilling and because of this the copper grades estimated from the drilling – which are the grades used in the NI 43-101 resource estimation – are conservative and apparently understated. Sheffield’s recent drilling recovered 44% more copper in their Moonlight Valley drill holes than in the adjacent Placer drill holes. Reasons offered for the historically understated drill grades include improper orientation of the historical drill holes, small BX-size core in the historical drilling resulting in very poor recoveries, loss of copper minerals in the historical drilling as confirmed by Placer’s own comparison sludge sampling, possible analytical issues, and perhaps other items as well. This means that the Moonlight Valley deposit, which remains open at depth and along strike, is potentially larger than currently known and may also be potentially richer than
indicated by the historical drilling.
The Sheffield property, combined with the property from the Aurora acquisition, will give Nevoro tremendous growth potential. We believe that by updating and expanding the current historic resources, which we are in the process of acquiring, we can accelerate our growth and have a clear advantage over other exploration companies with less advanced properties.
In addition to our properties, we have assembled a seasoned and well-rounded Board of Directors and management team – including geologists, mine engineers, chartered accountants, bankers, lawyers, mining executives and former mining analysts - to provide the leadership necessary to grow Nevoro and optimize our opportunities. The next year should be a busy and eventful one and we look forward to building on the foundation we have established.
William V. Schara, CPA
President, CEO and Director
May 9, 2008