VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – TSX-listed project developer Euro Sun Mining reported on Wednesday that the mining licence for its flagship Rovina Valley copper/gold project, in Romania, is working its way through government, with the National Agency for Mineral Resources and the Secretary General of Government (SGG) having signed it.

According to the Toronto-based company, the mining licence is now with the Public Finance Ministry for signature, following which it will be sent to the Ministry of Justice. 

The fully executed licence will then return to the SGG to be signed by the Prime Minister at the next available government meeting, which will signal the conclusion of the ratification process, before the approval is published in the official monitor.

Euro Sun president and CEO Scott Moore noted that management is present in Romania to assist where necessary and to ensure a quick completion of the ratification. “We look forward to initiating the next phase of the Rovina Valley project for the State of Romania, our local communities and for all our stakeholders,” the SGG said.

The Rovina Valley project is one of the largest mineral deposits in Europe and consists of three porphyry deposits: Colnic, Rovina and Ciresta. The project hosts measured and indicated mineral resources of 7.2-million ounces of gold and 1.4-billion pounds of copper in 406-million tons grading on average 0.55 g/t gold and 0.16% of contained copper.

Supported by Lundin Mining, Euro Sun recently led an unsolicited C$1.5-billion proposal to buy Nevsun Resources, the culmination of four successive bids initially by Lundin only, and then led by Euro Sun. Under that proposal, Lundin would own the European assets of Nevsun, including the Timok project, and Euro Sun the remainder of Nevsun, including the Bisha mine and Nevsun's cash balance.

In its rebuttal of the proposals, Nevsun pointed to concerns that the deal does not fully value the Timok copper/gold development project and it also pointed out that the proposal has significant structural issues including about C$100-million in estimated cash tax costs payable by Euro Sun, which is expected to be mainly borne by existing Nevsun shareholders.

The Nevsun board also took issue with Euro Sun's valuation of the Rovina project, in Romania, which it considers an “unpermitted, capital intensive ultra-low-grade asset” that Nevsun had previously evaluated and determined to be “highly unattractive”.