European Metals Holdings Ltd (LON:EMH) Managing Director Keith Coughlan caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss their latest drilling results in the Cinovec Main sector of the deposit and the significance of the Cinovec South Resource being added to the Czech State resource register
Q1: Now, European Metals Holdings have made 2 announcements regarding further drilling results since we last spoke, are you happy with those results and what significance do they have with regards to the project?
A1: Yes, we are happy with the results. All the results we’re getting from this drilling programme have been very good, they’ve all either confirmed or exceeded our expectations with regards to the mineralisation. In both of the last 2 results we’ve hit our best intercepts to date, intercepts of continuous mineralisation of over 200 metres, in some cases 250 metres, of 0.5% so big consistent ore bod, we’re delighted with those drilling results. What I think is the most current part of that will be our next resource upgrade and getting such good drilling results from all of these holes I think bodes well for that resource upgrade, probably later this month. The last resource upgrade we had was a very significant one and looks like this will be another good one because of those results.
Q2: I see that the drilling programme has finished, are there any more results to report for the program, is there any other drilling planned in the short-term?
A2: Ok, well firstly there are 3 holes remaining from the program that has been concluded so all of the drilling was finished a little while ago, we’ll get the results back from the assay and things so there are 3 more holes to release and I think we’ll be able to do that by about this time next week, I’m expecting those to be along the lines of the other results we’ve released recently.
In terms of any other further drilling, there’s nothing that’s planned or programmed at this point in time, I think however the next drilling we’ll do we’ll probably do some further exploration or confirmation drilling in the southern part of the ore body over the next couple of months but then of course, we’ll be doing confirmation drilling, at the completion of the PFS, we’ll be doing some confirmation drilling for the DFS which we’ll aim to get a portion of the first new units of mine life including measured category. Those 2 things are the next round of drilling that we will do, both of them are still a little way off.
Q3: The last announcement talks about the Cinovec deposit being added to the Czech State resource register, what does that mean and what’s the significance for the project?
A3: You have to understand the permitting process in the Czech Republic, so putting the resource onto the Czech State balance is official recognition by the Czech authorities that the resource meets the requirements and has become officially recognised near mining ore body. That then gets special rules and regulations applied to it but importantly, it’s the first and most significant step in the permitting process for the mining permit that we will be applying for fairly soon. So, it is significant and we’re very happy to have that part of the ore body on the Czech State resource register, we will be applying shortly for other parts of the resource to go onto the register as well and obviously with a plan to having the whole resource on the register by the time we start permitting. So, it’s significant, it’s a particularly internal check requirement but in terms of understanding it’s simply another step in the permitting process.
Q4: When we last spoke, you mentioned that it’d be a busy couple of month for European Metals Holdings, what further news can shareholders expect in the near term?
A4: It has been busy; December and January has been very busy and February will be no less busy. So, as I mentioned, we’ll have some further drilling results out and I’m hoping that’s about a week away, we will have a resource upgrade which we flagged, which we’ve spoken about in various announcements and I’m hoping that will be later in the month, perhaps 2-3 weeks away and I think that could be significant. We will then have some further information to put out to the market with regards to the met work through the production of lithium carbonate, battery-grade lithium carbonate, that will be a follow-up to the announcement we made just before Christmas about the lithium carbonate that we produced. I think we may well be able to put out some of the headline results that will form the significant parts of the PFS, that’ll be completed at the end of next month so lots to come.
On top of all that, on top of the news that we have, it’s also been a busy time in the lithium sector in general with some very interesting news coming through with regards to Chinese battery manufacturers buying into the European battery supply chain. This is very significant to the Chinese, making moves and more legislative changes in Europe with regards to electric car charging points and that sort of thing and corporately, we’ve seen the Chinese very active in funding projects and in some cases looking to buy projects outright. It’s been a busy time both for us specifically but also the lithium sector in general terms and I don’t see that diminishing much in the short-term.
