Eurasia Mining plc (AIM: EUA)
("Eurasia" or the "Company")
Monchetundra Mine Permit Registration
Eurasia Mining plc (AIM: EUA), the PGM and gold producing company, is pleased to announce that the official license certificate regarding the mine permit for Monchetundra has now been delivered to the company, and was yesterday, Monday 10 December 2018, registered with the state registry of subsoil mining licences in Moscow. A company director of the local subsidiary attended at Rosnedra in Moscow, the federal agent responsible for mining law, and received the mining license in person. This was subsequently officially filed with the state registry.
Rosnedra had previously calculated the one-time license payment (see RNS dated 07 Dec 2018) as RUR20,843,788, 20% of which (RUR4,168,758 or £48,853) is to be paid within 30 calendar days of registration of the license and the remaining 80% payable within 5 years of the date of the licence's registration.
A photograph of the official document, mining license MUR16493, has been uploaded to the Company's twitter feed. The license is issued to Terskaya Gornaya Kompany, Eurasia's 80% owned subsidiary, and is valid to the 07 December 2038, for the extraction of palladium, platinum, gold, copper and nickel.
Christian Schaffalitzky, commenting from the Company's Russian headquarters in Ekaterinburg said
'Congratulations to all our team in bringing this matter to a successful conclusion. Again we wish to thank the officials involved in moving the license documentation along so soon after the final decree from Prime Minister Medvedev. We look forward to advancing the project through construction now that the final permits are entirely in place. '
Background to the Monchetundra Project.
The Monchetundra project contains a state approved reserve and resource of circa 2Moz Pd equivalent (1.9Moz palladium dominant 2PGE as palladium, platinum and gold) with significant additional nickel and copper revenue streams. The Project is located adjacent to the town of Monchegorsk, 130km south of Murmansk on the Kola Peninsula, bordering Finland in Northwest Russia. A mine permit was awarded to the Company and was fully authorised by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in late November 2018. The Company later received the official paper document as a license certificate and has registered it with the state. This brings the permitting process to a successful conclusion.
The Monchetundra Project has an in-situ total reserve and resource value of approximately US$2.1 billion (an internal calculation based on London Metal Exchange November 2018 spot metal prices, and prepared for guidance only) and is now fully permitted for mining.
As previously announced, an Engineering Procurement Construction & Financing ("EPCF") contract is in place with the Chinese state-owned major infrastructure project group Sinosteel, for 85% (or US$149.6M) of a total contract value of US$176M. A US$50M sub-contract is specified within the contract and is assigned to Eurasia's 80% subsidiary Terskaya Gornaya Kompany ("TGK"), or a sub-contractor of its choosing, for engineering and pit development works in advance of mining.
The 1.9M oz Pd eq reserve and resource (with a 3:1 Pd:Pt ratio in favour of palladium based on production) with base metals credits is now permitted for extraction at two open pit locations, West Nittis and Loipishnune (for further details see announcement dated 31 May 2017).
Currently, state approved reserves and resources within the Monchetundra Project comprise Russian standard C1 and C2 categories of 59 tonnes (1.9 million ounces) palladium equivalent (2PGE + Gold with a Palladium to Platinum ratio of 3:1 based on production ounces) at two open-pittable locations, West Nittis and Loipishnune. These open pits also contain significant base metal credits including 28,124 tonnes of copper, 30,410 tonnes of nickel. The Directors consider the project to be unique globally in being led by high palladium grades, and that it represents a significant lower cost open pit mining operation which compares favourably to the relatively expensive underground operations in South Africa, the dominant player in the global PGM market.
This announcement includes inside information as defined in Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation No. 596/2014 and is disclosed in accordance with the Company's obligations under Article 17 of those Regulations.
Enquiries:
Eurasia Mining PLC Christian Schaffalitzky / Keith Byrne
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Tel: +44 (0)207 932 0418
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WH Ireland Limited (Nominated Adviser & Broker) Katy Mitchell / James Sinclair-Ford
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Tel: +44 (0)161 832 2174
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First Equity Limited (Joint Broker) |
Tel: +44 (0)20 7374 2212 |
Jason Robertson |
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Optiva Securities (Joint Broker)
Christian Dennis Tel: +44 (0) 20 3137 1902