As the global demand for lithium continues to grow and sale prices for most lithium based products increases, the value of the Cinovec Project – the largest lithium resource in Europe and one of the largest globally – is becoming increasingly more evident, the company said.
Recently listed European Metals Holdings (LON:EMH, ASX:EMH) revealed continued progress in the development of its wholly-owned Cinovec lithium/tin project in the Czech Republic.
Its quarterly activities report highlighted the completion of a competent persons’ report, the successful continuation of the drill programme and assay results that confirmed “the robustness and consistency” of the Cinovec ore body.
As the global demand for lithium continues to grow and sale prices for most lithium based products increases, the value of the Cinovec Project – the largest lithium resource in Europe and one of the largest globally – is becoming increasingly more evident, the company said.
European Metals (EMH) revealed that the cost of production at Cinovec has been re-calculated to include tin and tungsten as by-product credits, as a result of which the projected cost of lithium carbonate production drops to around US$800 a tonne (t) from the previous estimate of US$2,000/t.
This cost is substantially lower than the cost incurred by any current producers or the projected cost for any potential producers, EMH noted.
That will be music to the ears of Rare Earth Minerals (LON:REM), which upped its stake in the company back in October 2015 to 11.87%. Based on European Metals Holdings market capitalisation on the Australian Stock Exchange, Rare Earths’ stake is currently worth around A$2.94mln, equivalent to around £1.45mln.
In 2016, EMH announced it is undertaking bench scale test work to fully explore all available recovery techniques for the extraction of lithium. The current metallurgical test work will allow an independent trade off study to be finalised as part of the company’s due diligence on the Lepidico Ltd process.
In addition, as part of the pre-feasibility study, the company has also begun work on trade off studies with regards to plant location and into the potential of the development of high grade outcropping and shallow mineralization for initial start-up tonnage to accelerate production time-lines, lower capital costs and improve project economics.
Shares in EMH rose 8.3% overnight on the ASX, while Rare Earths’ shares were up 1% at 0.702p in mid-morning trading.
source;proactiveinvestors
