Eurasia Mining plc (AIM: EUA)
("Eurasia" or the "Company")
West Kytlim Mining Licence Awarded
Eurasia Mining plc, the Russia focused PGM exploration and development company, is pleased to announce the formal award and receipt by the company of the Mining Licence at West Kytlim.
The formal award of the West Kytlim Mining Licence and its official registration in Moscow was completed yesterday. The Company is now in possession of all necessary licence documentation confirming the Company's right to commence preparations for alluvial platinum mining, with a scheduled first mining and revenue generation starting next year, in 2016.
Christian Schaffalitzky Managing Director of Eurasia Mining said: "Formal award and receipt of the Mining Licence is a monumental step forward for Eurasia Mining and its shareholders.
This moment has been achieved after tremendous perseverance and dedication by the Eurasia team and notably by our company representatives in Russia, in particular our Russian director Dmitry Suschov. We are grateful to the Russian authorities for their support and assistance in the management of our licence application.
In line with our stated objectives, production of alluvial platinum from West Kytlim will provide incoming cashflow from the sale of platinum concentrate. This cashflow is an important step to Eurasia Mining becoming a self-sufficient and self-financed mineral exploration, development and production company.
This licence award comes at a time when the Company is also entertaining interest from a number of parties in respect of our Monchetundra licence and our team are actively engaged with the provision of support and information to the interested parties.
Eurasia will be providing a further comprehensive update in due course detailing the next steps
for West Kytlim and we will update the market in respect of progress in Monchetundra discussions as and when appropriate."
Further background to the West Kytlim project and its production potential
Alluvial platinum at West Kytlim occurs as nuggets in sand and gravel river deposits and can be liberated by straightforward hydro-mechanical processes. The operation is scalable and modular such that careful planning is required to ascertain the most economic solution. The project development is also iterative in that waste stripping and ore processing must be carefully scheduled to ensure all machinery deployed remains at near full capacity and that work at discrete sites is sequenced correctly.
Development at West Kytlim is expected to begin with an initial diesel powered operation at sites where shallow placers with little overburden are amenable to diesel powered earth moving equipment and plant.
The Company also intends that a subsequent dragline operation would be phased in once the diesel operation is fully operational. Further dragline sites could later be phased in for concurrent operations at the project. Electrically powered draglines, which greatly reduce operating costs, would require renovation of a power line to the site and installation of a local substation. It is also intended that, after installation of electric power, the diesel operation and its associated plant would in part be modified to switch to the cheaper electric alternative. Cash flow from the diesel operation could then be used to fund further capital expansion from year 2 of platinum production. Under the Company's earlier estimates the operation would operate for a minimum of 10 years and produce up to 5 tonnes of raw platinum.
The Mining Licence of 21.5 square kilometres is for alluvial platinum and is valid until 15 October 2040. The licence is granted to Eurasia's subsidiary company on the basis of first discovery and includes the rights for extraction of platinum and gold. The one-off lump-sum payment due to the government, to be paid within 30 days of registration of the licence, is 2,126,000 roubles or approximately £24,000.
Enquiries:
Eurasia Mining Plc
Christian Schaffalitzky/Michael de Villiers
+44 (0)207 932 0418
WH Ireland Limited
Katy Mitchell/Liam Gribben
+44 (0)161 832 2174
Beaufort Securities
Elliot Hance
+44 (0)207 382 8300
Loeb Aron
John Beresford-Peirse
+44 (0)207 628 1128
