European Metals Holdings upbeat on latest development

European Metals Holdings announced on Thursday that the Cinovec Project company Geomet has submitted the documentation related to the initial environmental impact assessment notification to the Czech Ministry of the Environment.

The AIM-traded firm also released the latest results from its current 19-hole resource drilling programme at Cinovec.

It said drilling of 17 of the 19 holes had been completed, with the 18th hole currently underway.

EMH said that resource drill holes CIS-24, CIS-25, CIS-26, CIS-28, CIS-29 and CIS-30 had been completed including analytical reports, while resource drill holes CIS-15, CIS-16, CIS-17, CIS-27and CIS-32 had been drilled, with analytical results pending.

Drilling of resource hole CIS-33 was currently underway.

Hole CIS-24 returned 66.5 metres averaging 0.56% lithium oxide, including 6.7 metres at 0.93% lithium oxide, and 20 metres at 0.13% tin.

The company siad hole CIS-25, meanwhile, returned 88.2 metres averaging 0.60% lithium oxide and 0.17% tin, including 21.4 metres at 0.73% lithium oxide and 0.46% tin.

Hole CIS-26 returned 84.6 metres averaging 0.49% lithium oxide and 0.09% tin, and hole CIS-28 returned 86.3 metres averaging 0.51% lithium oxide including 5.25 metres at 0.97% lithium oxide.

EMH said hole CIS-29 returned 70.8 metres averaging 0.52% lithium oxide including 3.1 metres at 0.99% lithium oxide, and two metres at 0.99% lithium oxide.

Finally, it reported that hole CIS-30 returned 66.2 metres averaging 0.49% lithium oxide and 0.13% tin, including 3.5 metres at 1.31% lithium oxide, 0.42% tin and 0.155% tungsten, one metre at 2.3% lithium oxide, 0.59% tin and 0.327% tingsten, and 4.45 metres at 0.85% tin.

The company said the current drill programme had been planned to define blocks of resource for the first five years of mining within the Cinovec-South area, with a goal to convert the resource from indicated to measured category.

It said the holes had been terminated in ore consistent with the aim of targeting the first five years of resource blocks for the mine.

“We are pleased to report that submission of the environmental impact assessment to the Czech government fulfills a critical path item in relation to finalising the approval for the Cinovec mine,” said executive chairman Keith Coughlan.

“We anticipate that the process will enable European Metals and its joint venture partner CEZ to actively engage with the relevant stakeholders to ensure that all affected parties are consulted and all viewpoints are actively considered.

“With regard to the drill results, we advise that the interim results of the current drilling programme at Cinovec are either in line with, or better than our expectations.”

Coughlan said the primary purpose of the programme was to convert a larger portion of the resource to the measured category, to provide greater certainty of the financial model and security to the financiers it was currently in discussions with.

“It is important to note that the first stage of the ore processing, the wet magnetic separation, has the effect of greatly increasing the grade of lithium oxide in the concentrate to approximately 2.85%.

“The zinnwaldite concentrate produced from Cinovec requires only roasting, compared to the calcination and roasting required of processing spodumene.

“This will have the effect of considerably reducing greenhouse gas emissions of the Project when compared to spodumene projects.”

At 1409 BST, shares in European Metals Holdings were up 7.5% at 77.4p.