Amyris to buy 40 pct stake in Brazil sugar mill

SAO PAULO Dec 3 (Reuters) - Sao Martinho (SMTO3.SA), one of Brazil's main sugar and ethanol companies, will sell a 40 percent stake in its Boa Vista mill for 140 million reais ($81.9 million) to U.S-based Amyris, it said on Thursday.

The two companies have also established a joint venture that will add a new $50 million industrial unit to Boa Vista where Amyris will operate using its technology in the area of specialty chemicals starting from the 2011/12 harvest.

Amyris has developed so-called second-generation biofuels technology, using microorganisms to take juice extracted from crushing cane and turn it into a biodiesel closely resembling the mineral-based fossil fuel.

Sao Martinho said the joint venture would use the firms' integrated structure, which includes everything from growing cane to producing a final product, to focus on renewable specialty chemicals.

The Boa Vista mill, located in the state of Goias, has a crushing capacity of 2.25 million tonnes, which would rise to 3.4 million tonnes after planned investments of 90 million reais in processing equipment. (Reporting by Peter Murphy; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) ((peter.murphy@thomsonreuters.com; tel +55 11 5644 7736; Reuters Messaging: peter.murphy.reuters.com@reuters.net)) ((For help: Click "Contact Us" in your desk top, click here [HELP] or call 1-800-738-8377 for Reuters Products and 1-888-463-3383 for Thomson products; For client training: training.americas@thomsonreuters.com ; +1 646-223-5546))