JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed junior Plymouth Minerals has earned a 50% interest in the San Jose lithium/tin project from Spanish partner Valoriza Mineria by spending €1.5-million to complete the technical work at the project in 12 months.
Plymouth can now earn a further 25% in San Jose by completing a feasibility study and spending a minimum of €2.5-million within three years of completing Stage 1.
The technical work that Plymouth completed supports the mining licence application (MLA), which is required to trigger the approvals process to go from investigation permit to exploitation permit. The company said on Wednesday that the MLA lodgement process had started earlier in the week.
“The submission of the MLA is the culmination of a substantial amount of work, which all comes together at this point. We believe we have an excellent project and have the ideal partners to proceed through permitting and construction,” commented MD Adrian Byass.
Plymouth said it would release the results of a scoping study for San Jose in the near future.
The company recently entered into an alliance with Chinese lithium producer Shandong Ruifu, which would assist in optimising the process flow sheet and capital costs for a feasibility study for the project.
Valoriza Mineria is the mining arm of Spanish publically listed construction and engineering firm Sacyr.