(ShareCast News) - Harvest Minerals announced on Thursday that it has received the environmental licence for the Maximus project at its Arapuá Phosphate Project in Brazil.The AIM-traded firm said that, following the granting of the required municipal and federal operating approvals, the environmental license - State Autorização Ambiental de Funcionamento - was granted to the company's wholly owned Brazilian subsidiary Triunfo Fertilizantes and Mineração Ltda on 5 September by the Secretary of State for Environment and Sustainable Development of Minas Gerais.It had previously announced that the AAF is a precursor to the lodgment of the trial mining permit, which has now been lodged with the National Department of Mineral Production.The AAF is valid for a period of four years and provides for a 'rolling' 50,000 tonnes of production, which means that the company can produce in batches of 50,000 tonnes at a time, for a period of up to four years.That production capacity is greater than the original expectation of a maximum of 100,000 tonnes per annum.The grant of the AAF also permits Harvest to commence site works ahead of the commencement of production.As a result, the board said it is finalising arrangements with a contract miner and expects to make an announcement around mobilisation of the contractor in the coming week.In the same announcement, Harvest also acknowledged that some warrant holders exercised their warrants in recent days, resulting in further application cash of $0.4m being received by the company."The team at Harvest is focused on bringing the Maximus target into trial production by the end of the year, and the award of the environmental license brings us another step closer to that goal," said Harvest executive chairman Brian McMaster."With the available funds from the last placement in January, we have progressed the project to the point when we are now able to commence site works, which is a credit to all involved."Additionally, we welcome current shareholders exercising their warrants which is a vote of confidence for our growth strategy," he added.
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