EUROPEAN METALS HOLDINGS LIMITED ORD NPV (DI) (LON:EMH) Managing Director Keith Coughlan caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss the completion of their drill programme and the appointment of a Czech Country Manager
Q1: Now you’ve announced some further good drill results today and the completion of the current drilling programme. What’s the significance of the results?
A1: Well firstly, yes, you’re right, we have announced some excellent drill results really, in fact one of the holes returned the best lithium intervals that we’ve had from all of our drilling to date, an intersection of over 260 metres at better than 0.5% lithium oxide so that’s very encouraging. The significance of it, firstly the significance of completing that programme on time, on budget etc. is very good, it indicates that the drill is reliable and that the drilling has gone according to plan. In terms of the result of the holes themselves, significance is that it continues to increase our confidence in the ore body, it’s a very consistent substantial ore body, we’re very happy with the way all of the drilling has fallen into place. It would lead into a further resource upgrade for us between now and the completion of the preliminary feasibility study which I think is also significant, we put out a resource upgrade towards the end of November, quite a significant one, I’m not sure if you recall, an increase 420% in the indicated resource and that was a very significant upgrade. So, we expect to have another good strong upgrade between now and the end of the PFS, as I say, these sort of drill hits help us a lot with the calculation of that upgrade.
Q2: You mentioned in an announcement before Christmas that you would have further metallurgical work done in the New Year, can you tell us when you might be able to update the market on that and any further news really?
A2: Certainly, on the metallurgical work we’ve said that in our announcement pre-Christmas, the one in which we announced we’d produced the battery-grade lithium carbonate at a grade of about 99.5%. Fair to say that the Christmas/New Year period is a little slow in Western Australia, everyone’s at the beach and enjoying the sun. So, the lab work has gone a little slower than I’d hoped over the past couple of weeks but I do think we’ll be in a position to make the announcement we alluded to within the next fortnight and we’re looking forward to making that announcement. I think we’ll be able to upgrade what were already good results on the lithium carbonate production and talk about any impurities as well and I think that’ll be a significant announcement.
In terms of other announcements, it’s going to be a busy time right through from now until the PFS, certainly January and February will be busy, they’ll be further drilling results, the last couple of holes of that previous programme will come through in this period of time. We’ll be able to talk more about which metallurgical process we will be going with in the PFS following this next round of metallurgical results and further developments that will all lead into the conclusion of the PFS so quite a bit of news over January and February for people to look forward to.
Q3: Now you announced the appointment of a Czech Country Manager, how will that help the progress of the project?
A3: We did Giles, Richard Pavlik, who we are very very delighted to get on board. We met Richard when he was doing some work for one of our consultants in the Czech Republic in fact and he’s a thirty-year mining veteran in the Czech Republic. He’s worked for some very big companies over there, primarily in the area of coal which is one of the largest mined commodities in the Czech Republic and Richard brings that sort of long-term in-Country experience. In particular, from our point of view, he’s dealt with the various ministries, the various levels of government in regards to permitting and all those that are the next stage of development for us in the project as we pass through the PFS stage, go into the DFS and look to get our mining licence and all these sorts of things that we require, our environmental impact studies. All those important points, Richard will be invaluable in helping us along the path with all of those things.
