Ferrum Crescent granted three-year extension at Toral

Europe-focussed lead-zinc explorer Ferrum Crescent announced on Wednesday that, following a formal application to the Director-General of Mines of the Province of Leόn, its exploration licence on the Toral lead-zinc project has been renewed for a further three-year term to November 2020.

The AIM-traded firm said that under Spanish national and provincial mining law, exploration licences are subject to renewal to the existing owners following satisfaction of a proposed exploration plan, or alternatively could be converted into a development licence.

GoldQuest Iberica, the company’s wholly owned operating subsidiary and holder of the Toral Project's exploration licence, submitted and presented details of the work performed to date and the company's outline of its planned ongoing exploration programme.

The planned exploration programme was accepted by the Province of Leόn as being able to “significantly progress” the Toral asset, and as a result, the Director-General exercised his authority to grant the company a renewed full three-year exploration licence.

“I am delighted that the presentation of our planned exploration programme has been fully accepted by the Director-General which allows us to effectively reset the 'exploration clock' for our promising Toral lead-zinc assets,” said Ferrum Crescent executive director Laurence Read.

“The work our Spanish team has performed in delivering this outcome has been comprehensive and exceptional and I would like to thank the entire team for their professionalism and dedication at a time when we have been refocusing Ferrum Crescent to begin building value from our European lead-zinc portfolio.”

Read said the company was currently undertaking a full consolidation, review and re-analysis of all the available data collated to date for Toral, with its independent consultants Addison Mining Services.

“A formal site visit by the appointed independent is now underway, following which the company will progress its planned first JORC-compliant resource estimate for Toral.

“We look forward to updating the market once this review has been completed.”