PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Cobre Montana has inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with fellow-listed European Metals to hunt for lithium resource at the Cinovec mine, in the Czech Republic.
Under the MoU, Cobre would undertake test work to assess the caliber of a Joint Ore Reserves Committee Compliant inferred resource of 37-million tonnes, grading 0.8% lithium oxide.
The test work was expected to take six months to complete, and Cobre said on Monday that subject to due diligence outcomes, the company would expect to present a commercial development proposal to European Metals at the end of that period.
Cobre’s first international expansion comes just a month after the company secured the exclusive rights to use the only known processing technology able to extract lithium from micas.
European Metals was meanwhile, completing a scoping study on the Cinovec project to evaluate the tin and tungsten potential at the project. The historic operation has one of the largest undeveloped tin deposits in the world, with a total inferred resource of 28.1-million tonnes, grading 0.37% tin.
European Metals MD Keith Coughlan said on Monday that lithium, potassium and rare metal credits could prove significant to the Cinovec project.
“The project is situated on the border with Germany which is a large-scale user of lithium carbonate for its extensive lithium battery manufacturing that is used in its internal automotive and manufacturing sector. This could provide not just a ready market for the offtake of this material, but opens numerous possibilities for strategic alliances with end-users of this product,” Coughlan said.