Europa Metals draws down second tranche of Spanish grant

Europe-focussed lead-zinc and silver developer Europa Metals said on Monday that all of the requisite work documentation submitted to the Spanish Government’s Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) in relation to the first stage milestone of its €0.47m (£0.4m) innovation grant had been approved.

The AIM-traded firm said it had now drawn down and received the second tranche of the grant, being €0.16m.

Following receipt of the initial tranche of €0.16m, Europa Metals said it worked with its partners, the University of Salamanca Air Institute, drilling contractors Sondeos y Perforaciones Industriales de Bierzo (SPI), and Soluciones Generales de Ingenieria (SGI), in recording and analysing the data generated from the 2021 pre-feasibility study drilling campaign at its wholly-owned Toral Project.

Using new downhole monitoring technologies, developed by SPI and SGI, the University of Salamanca had now compiled a sufficient data set from more than 2,800 metres of diamond drilling at Toral to create an initial correctional algorithm to be further researched to move towards potential commerciality.

Work in the second stage would see Toral continue to be used as a live testing environment by the partnership, as the University of Salamanca continued its analysis, with any future commercial benefit from an eventual product to be shared by partners.

On completion of the second stage of work, currently expected during 2022, a third and final, tranche of €0.14m would then be available for drawdown, subject to a review by the CDTI confirming that the requisite criteria of the innovation programme had been met.

“The Spanish Government agency tasked with promoting commercial innovation in Spain, the CDTI, has now approved our partnership's stage one work with respect to developing a corrective drilling algorithm and, consequently, we have now drawn down a further €0.16m to progress the live study testing,” said chief executive officer Laurence Read.

“The innovation partnership we have created integrates the pursuit of real research and development into our existing work programmes at the Toral Project.

“It is an exciting time in the Spanish mining industry with significant new cross border investments being made into this region of the EU and we believe partnering to develop potential new processes and technologies with the government, a leading university and suppliers is extremely beneficial as the sector opens up.”

At 1030 GMT, shares in Europa Metals were up 8.57% at 5.7p.