European Metals Holdings Limited (ASX: EMH) has identified a suitable location for the construction its Cinovec Mine lithium plant in the Czech Republic.
The company’s 49% owned subsidiary Geomet s.r.o has agreed to pay US$43.96 million purchase the selected piece land at the industrial site “Dukla” in the Újezdeček Municipality, 6.2 km south of the planned Cinovec Mine portal area.
European Metals has provided a loan of CZK121m (US$5.51m) to Geomet for its proportion of all deposits and option fees.
Acquiring this land secures an integral part of the Cinovec Project – the acquisition of the land on which the Lithium Plant is to be built. The close location of Dukla to the mine site is critical to the minimisation of transport costs and ESG impact. The acquired land is zoned for industrial use,” European Metals Executive Chairman, Keith Coughlan, said.
“With the land now secured, DRA Global can complete the layout designs for the lithium plant which are required as part of the DFS. This enables the timeline to completion to be maintained.”
The Cinovec Project holding company has agreed to acquire one of the privately-held land packages and entered into exclusive and unconditional option agreements for the purchase of the other three.
The Dukla site has been confirmed as an appropriate site upon which to build a lithium plant for the beneficiation of Cinovec ore and production of battery-grade lithium in accordance with the company’s ongoing DFS which is on track to be completed in 4Q23.
This confirmation has been obtained as a result of engineering layout and design work undertaken in the DFS to-date, geohydrological and geotechnical surveys over the site, completed in early 2023.
An application to the Usti Regional Department of Land Use Planning for the rezoning of the land around the Dukla site (which is already zoned for industrial use), ore transport corridor options and the Cinovec Mine portal area was made in April 2022. The result of this re-zoning application is expected to be finalised in 4Q23. The company intends to exercise its three options and settle these land acquisitions after the re-zoning application has been successful, anticipated to occur in 2024.
Significant reserves
An initial Probable Ore Reserve of 34.5Mt at 0.65% Li2O and 0.09% Sn reported 4 July 2017 (Cinovec Maiden Ore Reserve – Further Information) has been declared to cover the first 20 years mining at an output of 22,500tpa of lithium carbonate (refer to the Company’s ASX release dated 11 July 2018).
This makes Cinovec the largest hard rock lithium deposit in Europe, the fifth largest non-brine deposit in the world and a globally significant tin resource.
The deposit has previously had over 400,000 tonnes of ore mined as a trial sub-level open stope underground mining operation.
