Homerun’s 582-Hectare Bet: Turning a Brazilian Silica District Into a Solar-Glass Stronghold

Control of 582 hectares of Brazilian farmland has become the hinge on which Homerun Resources Inc. (TSXV: HMR | OTCQB: HMRFF) plans to swing its entire energy-transition strategy. In a wide-ranging conversation with InvestorNews.com host Tracy Hughes, CEO and Director Brian Leeners ties that land package—Fazenda Conjunto São José e Nova Esperança in the Santa Maria Eterna Silica Sand District—directly to a three-year campaign to transform a Google search into district-scale control of one of the world’s most coveted high-purity silica sand resources. For a company that describes itself as “building the silica-powered backbone of the energy transition” across four verticals—Silica, Solar, Energy Storage and Energy Solutions—the geography is not incidental. Anchored in Bahia, Brazil, Homerun’s entire model rests on a unique high-purity, low-iron silica resource that can be transformed into premium solar glass, silica-based thermal energy storage and advanced high-value silica-based materials. The 582-hectare farm is not just another acquisition; it is the physical platform on which those ambitions are meant to stand. Hughes opens the interview by reading directly from the company’s statement: “Just over three years ago, we were the only party to identify the globally unique value of the Santa Maria Eterna Silica Sand District in the global solar glass and energy storage sectors… That original plan has manifested today into Homerun obtaining the desired control of the district through direct resource ownership, resource partnership, and direct land ownership.” The origin story is disarmingly modest. “If you go back 36 months, Tracy—almost exactly 36 months, a little bit longer—I identified that actual resource in a Google search that was prompted by my wife, who’s from Bahia,” Leeners recalls. She suggested he look for critical elements in the state; he typed “high purity silica Bahia” into a browser. A PhD thesis popped up, its author still reachable at the same Gmail address. That chain—an academic paper, a family rooted in Brazil’s silica business, a private organization that owned part of the district—became the first link in what is now, effectively, territorial control. From there, the work turns methodical. Through his Brazilian partner and Homerun’s Country Manager, Antonio Vitor, Leeners and Homerun cultivated relationships with the state resource company, Companhia Baiana de Pesquisa Mineral (CBPM), and the private owners scattered across Santa Maria Eterna. CBPM, he explains, is mandated to find mineralization, do early-stage work on a limited budget and then move projects into private hands. Over three years Homerun secured a series of mineral leases from CBPM and entered long-term material supply agreements with other silica owners, including Jundu, a district producer controlled by global silica player Sibelco. “We ended up getting all of CBPM’s assets in the district,” Leeners notes. The only significant piece not under Homerun’s control is Jundu itself—“and Jundu is our partner.” Land was always the missing layer. Early on, the company secured long-term surface rights—structured as a 99-year renewable arrangement—over a roughly 64-hectare parcel at Fazenda São José, earmarked for an industrial complex to purify raw silica into advanced materials and manufacture solar glass. But the real pivot came when Homerun, working initially with the local municipality and then directly with the owner, moved to acquire what Leeners calls “the largest farm in the area, which is huge—several hundred hectares—which sits over large portions of the silica that are controlled by other parties in the district.” That description now has a precise number: 582 hectares of land and surface rights at Fazenda Conjunto São José e Nova Esperança, directly adjacent to the initial industrial site. To read the full column, go to: https://bit.ly/3OhzAeN