European Green Transition plc has entered an exclusive 12-month option to acquire a copper tailings recycling project near the past-producing Limni mine near Polis, western Cyprus.
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The open pit mine, approximately 900m long, 400m wide and 200m deep, produced more than 8.1Mt at 1.11% copper between 1937 and 1978, before being backfilled with tailings between 2010 and 2012.
“The EU funded infill, using tailings taken from the original tailings site near the coast, has led to the circulation of metals in solution in the pit,” said EGT.
“Rainfall, especially in winter, results in water runoff that is enriched with metals, which are potentially recoverable.
“Copper-enriched waters discharging from the historic copper mine have a distinctive blue colour and a straightforward, capital efficient copper recovery circuit has been proposed by the current owners to extract the copper from easily accessible pit waters.”
The company added that a proposed hydraulic pumping system would extract copper from existing pit waters, potentially to recover a “meaningful but as of yet undetermined amount of copper”.
Once the recycling is complete, the site could host a solar power facility in conjunction with a funding partner, so providing EGT with long-term revenue.
Chief executive Aiden Lavelle, who worked on the project in 2017, said that the option broadened the company’s focus and scope.
“The Limni project perfectly fits our aim to pursue what we believe are high quality opportunities where we can potentially generate near term cash flow efficiently, while also prioritising the environment and local stakeholders.
“We see potential to generate modest initial cash flows from this project within the first 12 months, should we choose to exercise the option.”
The company paid a £125,000 fee for the option to project owner BW79 Holdings Ltd.