European Metals Holdings Limited (LON:EMH) is pleased to report on its activities and continued progress in the development of the globally significant Cinovec Lithium / Tin Project in Czech Republic during the three month period ending June 2018.
Appointment of chief operating officer
The Company announced the appointment of Mr Neil Meadows to the position of Chief Operating Officer on 11 April 2018. Neil has previously held the position of Chief Operating Officer at Karara Mining Ltd, Managing Director of IMX Resources Limited and worked with the Australian Premium Iron Ore Joint Venture on mine infrastructure. Prior to that, he was the Chief Operating Officer of Queensland Nickel Pty Ltd, subsequent to the sale of the business by BHP and was previously the General Manager of the Yabulu Refinery site for BHP. Prior to that he was the General Manager at the Murrin Operation for Minara Resources Ltd, a position he held for almost five years.
Neil holds a Masters of Applied Science in Metallurgy from the South Australian Institute of Technology, and was the recipient of the Mine Manager of the Year Award through the Sydney Mining Club in 2007. He was the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy North Queensland Resources Industry Professional of the Year in 2009. His technical qualifications are supported by a Graduate Diploma in Business Administration from Charles Sturt University, along with a Diploma of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Neil is an accomplished and highly regarded senior executive with a successful background in leadership in the Australian resources sector. His strategic focus, outstanding communication skills and excellent work ethic have provided him with the leadership strengths to manage multi-disciplined teams in the achievement of corporate objectives. He is result-orientated, disciplined and has gained considerable recognition for his work in improving operational and business outcomes for major enterprises.
Pilot of scale cinovec ore beneficiation commenced
On 6 June 2018, European Metals announced the commencement of the beneficiation process and magnetic separation of a 15 tonne bulk sample which represents the ore that will be mined in the first stages of project development.
The beneficiation and magnetic separation of a lithium rich concentrate will provide pilot plant feed for planned downstream processing through the roast, leach, purification and final product precipitation flowsheet that has been developed. It is intended to ultimately produce up to 200 kg of battery grade lithium carbonate from this material for marketing and user acceptance purposes.
The processing of the ore sample will also provide approximately 12 tonnes of non-magnetic material that will be used to confirm the flowsheet for the recovery of tin and tungsten values which are unique and important by-products from the Cinovec ore body.
The program of work is being carried out by UVR-FIA GmbH in Freiberg who are specialists in beneficiation and magnetic separation.
Development post reporting period
CINOVEC PRODUCTION MODELLED TO INCREASE TO 22,500 TPA OF LITHIUM CARBONATE
On 11 July 2018 the Company reported that it had completed roast optimization testwork and that improved recoveries have resulted in increased lithium carbonate production from the Cinovec Project to 22,500 tpa.
All recent roast/leach tests have reliably achieved lithium extractions in the region of 94% recovery. The significance of these results is that a 7% increase in lithium recovery is predicted over that used in the Preliminary Feasibility Study (“PFS”) completed last year which in turn leads to an increase to 22,500tpa of lithium carbonate production from the project.
This increased production results in approximately a 10% increase in EBITDA margins for the project which will have obvious positive effects to the project returns which the definitive feasibility will re-model.
