One of the world’s most fascinating and oldest mines, Rio Tinto in Spain, is now at the final stage of development ahead of re-opening.
There now seems to be nothing in the way to prevent the full-scale go-ahead by AIM and TSX listed EMED Mining from re-opening one of Europe and the World’s most historic mining sites.
The Rio Tinto mine in Spain has been mined since 3000 BC, as well as being the birthplace at the end of the 19th Century of one of the world’s biggest mining companies – Rio Tinto, although it is no longer involved in the Spanish mine.
EMED has now announced receiving the final operating licence from the Rio Tinto Municipality, which is the last piece of paper necessary to let it go ahead with initiating mining operations at the historic site. Wet commissioning of the rebuilt and refurbished concentrator is already under way and the company says it is now scheduling first commercial production in Q3 this year.
Company CEO, Alberto Lavandira commented on the permitting award: “The receipt of the licence is a major milestone for the company as it represents the final permit required to start building up production over the next few months, ahead of the originally anticipated target date of January 2016.”
It has been a long and frustrating wait for EMED shareholders, permitting seems to have taken forever! London broker/banker Investec describes the past 12-18months as having been transformational as progress has been accelerated and the necessary permitting, which held back the project for several years, put in place.
To be fair to the previous management, this may well have just been a fortunate matter of timing for the new management team, at least as far as the permitting has been concerned.
For the rest of this article, click here: http://www.mineweb.com/news/base-metals-and-minerals/5000-year-old-mine-and-the-inspiration-behind-rio-tinto-set-to-reopen/