European Metals’ subsidiary Geomet has agreed to acquire land at the Dukla industrial site in Újezdeček municipality in the Czech Republic, where it intends to build a lithium processing facility.
Geomet owns the Cinovec project, which is claimed to hold one of the largest lithium deposits in Europe and is also one of the largest underdeveloped tin resources in the world.
Geomet will purchase the Dukla site for $43.96m.
The site has an existing industrial usage permit and is owned by four private companies. Peripheral and adjacent land relevant to the site is held by the Czech state and/or by local public bodies.
Geomet will acquire one of the land packages and has entered into an exclusive option agreement to acquire the other three.
The Dukla site is an appropriate location to build a lithium plant for the mineral processing of the ore from Cinovec and to produce battery-grade lithium. The company applied for the rezoning of the land around the Dukla site, the ore transport corridor and the Cinovec mine portal area in April 2022.
The result of the application is anticipated in the final quarter of 2023.
Once the firm secures the rezoning application, it plans to use the option and acquire the three land packages.
CEZ and European Metals own a 51% and a 49% stake in Geomet respectively.
Geomet also owns mineral exploration licences issued by the Czech Republic for the Cinovec lithium/tin project.
It secured a preliminary mining permit from the country’s ministry of environment and ministry of industry.
Cinovec holds significant hard rock lithium deposits with a total measured mineral resource of 53.3Mt at 0.48% of lithium oxide (Li2O) and 0.08% tin (Sn).
The indicated mineral resources stand at 360.2Mt at 0.44% Li2 O and 0.05% Sn. Inferred mineral resources were 294.7Mt at 0.39% Li2O and 0.05% Sn, containing a combined 7.39 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent and 335.1kt of tin.
Source: Mining Technology
