London-listed Europa Metals (AIM:EUZ) has received a preliminary independent metallurgical test-work report from Wardell Armstrong regarding the company’s 100% owned Toral project in North West Spain.
The results follow a 61.6kg sample that was taken from the company’s 2019 drill programme and submitted to consultant Wardell Armstrong for analysis.
Locked cycle testing can now confirm the ‘saleable quality’ of lead, zinc and silver, with ‘good grades’ reported for each concentrate.
In particular, the zinc concentrate collected is of a higher grade than most currently being produced in Europe, the company explained.
“The initial grades in the concentrates are good, particularly in relation to the lead and silver, whilst the zinc grade is also encouraging,” said Myles Campion, Technical Director of Europa Metals.
The lead was reported to contain ‘significant’ levels of silver at 1,457 parts per million and as a result, is expected 'to allow for attractive payment terms' on any future production.
Shares in Europa Metals were trading 6% higher at 0.0265p on Wednesday morning.
Locked cycle testing further demonstrated a good recovery for each metal including 90.3% silver recovery, 84.3 lead recovery and 70.7% zinc recovery.
Laurence Read, Executive Director of Europa Metals, said the obtained levels were “very encouraging”, particularly in the context of a strong 84.3% lead recovery.
Following today’s preliminary findings, Europa said they will now enter the next phase of preliminary metallurgical work by recommendation of Wardell Armstrong as laid out in the report.
The second phase test work which will focus on deleterious elements and optimising zinc retention is expected to commence shortly and be concluded in Q1 2020.
Today’s results follow the company’s previous October announcement detailing an updated JORC mineral resource estimate which demonstrated a 12% increase in total resource measured at the Toral site.
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