(ShareCast News) - Shares in Eurasia Mining rose sharply after the company said it had begun drilling at its Monchetundra platinum licence area that is expected to "significantly" increase the value of the Russian project.Eurasia, a Russia-focused platinum group metals exploration and development company, said the work is expected to add reserves and resources to the project as part of a mining licence application.In total, 4,000 metres will be drilled to expand and add detail to the reserves and resources at the West Nittis PGM deposit, one of the two potential open pit discoveries at Monchetundra.Managing director Christian Schaffalitzky said: "After success in receiving the mining licence for West Kytlim, we are pleased to be back working on this exciting project at Monchetundra."The significant progress at West Kytlim has overshadowed other projects and this work announced today should, we believe, significantly increase the value of Monchetundra. Furthermore, our commitment to progress work at Monchetundra and move the project up the value chain enables us to build project value whilst finalising discussions with third parties who have expressed interest in the project recently."At 0927 BST, Eurasia shares were up 6.3% at 0.85p.