The Proyecto Masa Valverde (PMV) project, in Spain, has received environmental approval, paving the way for Atalaya Mining to file for an exploitation permit to what could be an important satellite deposit in the Riotinto district.
PMV consists of several volcanogenic massive sulphide-type deposits about 28 km from the 15-million-tonne-a-year Riotinto plant, which Atalaya sees as a central processing hub for its assets in the district.
"This is a very pleasing outcome and the 15-month turnaround from the submission of our proposal highlights that Andalucía is a world-class mining jurisdiction. It is also testament to our focus on developing sustainable operations which show respect to the natural environment and contribute to the development of the regions where we operate.
“With this key milestone now achieved, we plan to complete additional work and continue our exploration campaign to upgrade the existing mineral resource, which has yielded positive results to date,” said CEO Alberto Lavandeira.
In addition, the three core rigs currently active at PMV will focus on step-out drilling at the Masa Valverde deposit, resource definition drilling at the Campanario Trend and step-out drilling around the new discovery made at the Mojarra Trend. First drill testing of recently defined coincident electromagnetic and gravity anomalies is also planned.