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Luis Azevedo, Chairman & CEO of Bravo Mining Corp. | Rule Symposium 2026: Rick Rule interviews

Rule Investment Media May 27, 2026

Summary

Bravo Mining's Luanga is the largest undeveloped open-pit PGM (platinum-group metals) deposit outside Russia and South Africa, with a prefeasibility study due Q3.

Brazil's ZPE free-trade zone (no tax on capex or opex) lets Luanga smelt on site, lifting net present value to $1.8 billion.

Integrated-case capex of $608 million is one-third of NPV, passing the value-must-double-capex screen even at much lower PGM prices.

Seventeen drilled anomalies hint at iron oxide copper gold mineralization, a second exploration story alongside Luanga's platinum-palladium horizon.

Carajas defies its jungle reputation: hydro power, rail, ports, paved roads and experienced mining labor already serve a mature province.

Rick Rule's takeaways

  • Top takeaway Rule applies Jonathan Goodman's capital-intensity test - a cutoff where NPV is at least twice upfront capex - and argues Luanga clears it with capex only about one-third of NPV, even at dramatically lower platinum and palladium prices than today.
  • A longtime Bravo shareholder himself, he frames the Carajas as a mature mining province with established hydropower, rail, sealed roads and experienced labor rather than the remote Amazon outsiders imagine.

Jonathan Goodman's takeaways

  • Top takeaway Rule invokes Goodman's capital-intensity lesson - treating projects with NPV of at least twice the upfront capex as the cutoff - as the benchmark Bravo's economics pass.

Luis Azevedo's takeaways

  • Top takeaway He argues smelting on site under the ZPE free zone is what transforms the economics: $1.8 billion NPV on $608 million of capex versus $1.25 billion on $495 million if selling concentrate, with costs a fraction of the basket price.
  • He presents Luanga as the largest undeveloped open-pit PGM deposit outside Russia and South Africa, grown from a 120-million-ton acquisition at about 1.2 g/t bought from Vale in 2020 to 15.4 million palladium-equivalent ounces after roughly 80,000 meters of drilling.
  • He stresses the free-zone smelter plan also yields a fertilizer by-product worth about $500 per ton in a country he says is hungry for agribusiness inputs.
  • He sees a second growth leg in IOCG exploration at Luanga, citing 17 drilled anomalies and a former Vale discovery geologist hired in November 2025 to advance the concept.
  • He emphasizes alignment through his roughly 40% personal stake as largest shareholder, and commits to delivering the PFS in Q3 2026.