EMED to proceed to next stage in Rio Tinto copper restart

EMED has been granted permission to submit fully detailed plans for the restart of the old Rio Tinto copper mine in Spain

LONDON - 

EMED Mining's (AIM: EMED) plans to restart the Rio Tinto copper mine in Spain's Andalucia province have received a welcome boost as the relevant authorities have now cleared the company to prepare and submit the full set of detailed plans for operations and rehabilitation of the ‘Proyecto Rio Tinto' and proceed with all other administrative steps required for the planned 2010 start-up.

Since EMED last updated the market on the Rio Tinto progress at the end of September 2009, the Junta de Andalucia, the provincial government, has announced its support for the project at various public forums in the region and the regulatory authorities have cleared that the full set of operating and rehabilitation plans now be prepared and submitted.

The company and the authorities have agreed a refined approach to the permitting process: the recently submitted Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) will be further processed with the public consultation and other requirements to be addressed as soon as practical. In parallel, the transmission of mineral rights will be processed in compliance with environmental regulations introduced in the past few months, and EMED will lodge  as soon as practical all the detailed plans for operating and rehabilitating the mine, plant and waste disposal infrastructure and systems.

"This approach reflects resolution of important procedural matters which have been the focus of the permitting process for some months. It takes into account recently-introduced regulatory changes for processing EIA's under European Union guidelines along with the idiosyncrasies of this particular project," EMED said.

The objective remains for commissioning of Rio Tinto to start by the end of 2010 and for production to settle down in 2011.

For this project the regulatory co-ordination and most relevant regulatory functions are conducted by the government in the provincial city of Huelva and some in the State Capital of Seville. There is also consultation of government technical experts in Madrid.

The company has until now been awaiting clearance by the authorities to prepare and submit the full set of detailed plans for operations and rehabilitation along with independent reviews where stipulated. This phase will now proceed.

It is the intention of the government to consider and, if compliant, issue as many permits as possible in one step. A checklist of tasks has been broadly agreed, is now being documented and will be summarised for shareholders in due course.

The regulatory process for settling compensation for landholders has also been clarified. It appears that neither this nor any other third party issues impede the start-up timetable, the company said.

Managing director Harry Anagnostaras-Adams said: "The government has made its support clear and our team works with the relevant civil servants for the mine to start in a manner reliable for the long term."

Since becoming a publicly listed company in 2005, EMED has achieved 100 percent ownership of two major projects: Rio Tinto in Spain and the Detva gold project in Slovakia. EMED also has earlier-stage activities in Cyprus and, via an equity stake in KEFI Minerals (AIM: KEFI), in Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

The Detva gold project made considerable progress in the quarter to end-September, Emed announced in October. AMC Consultants recently completed the scoping study for the Biely Vrch deposit there. The scoping study indicated that the development of a ten year, 3 million tonnes per annum mining operation producing 60,000 ounces of gold was economically attractive based on the current gold prices, cost estimates and the project's technical parameters.

Biely Vrch hosts a JORC compliant indicated and inferred resource of 41.7 million tonnes at 0.79 grams per tonne for a total 1.1 million ounces of gold. EMED is working on selecting and procuring sites for mine infrastructure, resolving the rate of government royalty and agreeing on the timetable and conditions of permitting. Once progress is made, reserve drill-out and engineered required for a definitive feasibility study will commence, leading to the planned development in 2012.

Published courtesy of Proactive Investors - www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk

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