Eurasia Mining receives discovery certificate at Monchetundra project

Eurasia Mining was granted a discovery certificate for its Monchetundra project sooner than expected with application for a mining license expected to follow in the near future.

Terskaya Mining Company, Eurasia's local subsidiary, had applied for the certificate just last 15 June.

Monchetundra had 1.9m ounces of palladium equivalent global reserves and resources with a total in-situ metal value, before metal recoveries and all costs, of $1.7bn at current prices.

However, the board warned that did not imply Eurasia would achieve that figure.

The state-approved reserves and resources comprised Russian standard C1 and C2 categories of 55.9 tonnes palladium equivalent at two open pits which also contained significant gold and base metal credits, including 2.0 tonnes of gold, 28,124 tonnes of copper and 30,410 tonnes of nickel.

Eurasia had also made progress in talks with refineries in the region regarding concentrates of the likes produced from Monchetundra, the company said in a statement.

AIM-listed Eurasia said its intention was to progress the development of Monchetundra by adhering to a similar model as at its West Kytlim mine, contracting an operator and selling the operating costs in return for a share of the sales.

Production had already commenced from two production units at this mine.

Managing Director Christian Schaffalitzky congratulated his team for the results of their efforts.

"Once again, a heart-felt thank you to our team in Russia for advancing the project through to this stage. The rate of progress at Monchetundra, from submission of our Feasibility Study, through Reserves Approval to issue of a Discovery Certificate, has been impressive by any international standard. We look forward to progressing our Mining Licence application as we move towards development of this major asset."