(Sharecast News) - Berkeley Energia announced the start of its initial six hole drill programme to test for critical battery and electric vehicle (EV) metals across its large licence holding in Western Spain on Tuesday.The London-listed firm said the total 3,350m, 13 hole programme was targeting lithium, cobalt, tin, tungsten and rare earths, several of which had previously been mined in commercial quantities in the area.It said it held "one of the largest" exploration licence holdings in Spain, with more than 12,000 square kilometres of licences across a mineral rich province which had several periods of historic mining for a number of the metals and minerals being targeted.The targets had been generated through detailed exploration for a wide range of minerals over the past two years, Berkeley said, and further refined by the use of the ionic leach programme.Berkeley said the ionic leach methodology, which was being employed by the firm for the first time in Spain, allowed for the ultra-low detection of metals and minerals, and significantly reduced the amount of drilling required by generating highly defined targets. The results from that drill programme would be fed back into the database, and more refined targets interpreted.It would allow for further analysis of the mineral and metal endowment across the company's large licence holding in the mineral rich province.The first area being targeted was in the west of the licence area, 50km from Retortillo, which had previously been mined for tin and high-grade lithium and had reported "significant" cobalt anomalies.In addition to the new licences recently announced, the company said it had been awarded a 31 square kilometre licence, which included some former lithium and titanium operations, and was adjacent to one of the areas being drilled in the current programme."The commencement of an exploration programme for battery and EV metals is an important step as it allows the company to build on the excellent work the team has done in generating targets across our large licence holding over the past two years," said Berkeley Energia managing director and chief executive officer Paul Atherley.
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