The Baita Plai polymetallic operation, in Romania, could be in operation within three months from the drawdown of financing, owner Vast Resources reported on Monday, noting that the refinancing of the mine had reached an “advanced stage”.

It has been a long road for Vast to bring Baita Plai – a 1.8-million-tonne copper/silver/zinc/lead/gold/tungsten/molybdenum orebody – into operation.

“The delay has been costly,” chairperson Brian Moritz said on Monday, referring firstly to a delay in being issued a licence to mine at Baita Plai and secondly to the drawdown of $5.5-million in financing from Mercuria that had been withdrawn at the beginning of 2019.

That essentially forced the decision to put Manaila, Vast’s other Romania operation, onto care and maintenance to prioritise Baita Plai.

“The process of negotiating and agreeing the detailed documentation necessary for the refinance of Baita Plai has been time consuming but has, at the time of writing, reached an advanced stage,” Moritz said.

He added that in the waiting period, Vast had prepared a detailed commissioning and production plan for Baita Plai. The company had also ordered, purchased, or was implementing the long lead items so that the mine could be commissioned within three months of the drawdown of the finance.

“We continue to believe that Baita Plai is a key asset for the company and that when in production the mine will be transformational for the company,” said Moritz said.

The funding being negotiated would also be sufficient to start diamond mining at the Chiadzwa Community Concession, in Zimbabwe. Chiadzwa was previously referred to as the Marange diamond fields.

In April, Vast sold its 25.01% stake in its Zimbabwean gold related operations, which included the producing Pickstone-Peerless mine, together with the non-producing Eureka mine and the dormant Giant gold mine, to focus on the Baita Plai operations.

Shares in Vast gained nearly 40% on Monday to 0.30p each.