European Metal Holdings has raised gross proceeds of £1.04-million (about $1.82-million) through a share placing to Australian and UK investors, the company announced on Tuesday.

The placing price of 20p a share was at a discount of 13% to Friday’s closing price.

European Metals is advancing the Cinovec lithium/tin deposit in Czech Republic and said it would use the proceeds to progress its drilling programme, upgrade its resource model, start the engineering process for a definitive feasibility study and progress the environmental impact assessment.

It would also operate a pilot plant for the production of samples for marketing and progress discussions with potential strategic partners.

London-listed investor Cadence Minerals subscribed for 250 000 shares, increasing its interest to about 19.16%.

“Given the recent acceleration in the rate of project development and Cinovec's strategic significance in the future of the European electric vehicle market, Cadence Minerals were pleased to support European Metals and its CEO Keith Coughlan by participating in the fundraising. We look forward to further progress in the drilling programme,” commented Cadence Minerals CEO Kiran Morzaria.

Cinovec hosts a hard rock deposit with a total indicated resource of 372.4-million tonnes at 0.45% lithium oxide (Li₂O) and 0.04% tin. Its inferred resource is 323.5-million tonnes at 0.39% Li₂O and 0.04% tin, containing a combined 7.18-million tonnes lithium carbonate equivalent and 263 000 t of tin. An initial probable reserve of 34.5-million tonnes at 0.65% Li₂O and 0.09% tin has been declared over the first 20 years of mining at 22 800 t/y of lithium carbonate.

European Metals has completed a prefeasibility study, which indicated a return post-tax net present value of $540-million and an internal rate of return of 21%.

Metallurgical testwork has produced battery grade lithium carbonate and high-grade tin concentrate at excellent recoveries.