Photo by: Bloomberg
TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – TSX- and LSE-listed EMED Mining on Friday announced that the Andalucían government had confirmed transfer of the mining rights for the Rio Tinto copper project, owned by its Spanish subsidiary EMED Tartessus.
The announcement was made during an official visit of the President of Andalucía, Susana Díaz Pacheco, to EMED's facilities in Minas de Riotinto, where she explained that: "Rio Tinto is and must continue to be an icon in Andalusian and European mining, [...] From today onwards, EMED Tartessus has the authorisation to resume mining operations, thus, paving the way to economic growth and development for a region that has suffered greatly over the past few years”.
After the favourable resolution for the unified environmental authorisation (AAU), received at the end of last month, the announcement confirmed the approval of the mining rights and cleared the way for EMED to operate the Rio Tinto copper mine.
The recent AAU, together with the transfer of the Rio Tinto mining rights, were critical steps in EMED becoming a copper producer.
The company said that it is fully committed to mine development and achieving production as quickly as possible.
“As a brownfield site, copper production can be recommenced at Rio Tinto in a comparatively short timeframe and at a low capital cost,” EMED said.