RNS - grant awarded19 Oct 2020 08:02
19 October 2020
Europa Metals Ltd
("Europa Metals", the "Company" or the "Group") (AIM, AltX: EUZ)
€466,801.50 Grant Awarded by the CDTI Towards Exploration Work at the
Toral Pb, Zn & Ag Project, Spain
Europa Metals, the European focused lead-zinc and silver developer, is pleased to announce that, following an extensive submission process, an interest-free loan by way of a grant of €466,801.50 (the "Grant") has been awarded to the Company by the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) for use towards research and development ("R&D") at the Company's wholly owned Toral lead, zinc and silver project ("Toral" or the "Toral Project") situated in the region of Castilla y León, north-west Spain.
The CDTI is a Public Business Entity in Spain, under the auspices of the Ministry of Science and Innovation, which fosters the technological development and innovation of Spanish companies. The Grant is categorised as a partly refundable loan (with a nil per cent. interest rate) with the funds received to be allocated towards the development of R&D technologies relating to the recording and correction of drillhole deviation at the Toral Project. Application for the Grant was made further to ongoing work by Europa Metals and the AIR Institute, linked to the Salamanca University, and drilling contractors Sondeos y Perforaciones Industriales de Bierzo SA ("SPI").
Europa Metals will draw the Grant monies down in up to three tranches, with the prior agreement of the CDTI, with the initial tranche, comprising an amount of €163,380, to be received by the Company imminently. The second and third tranches are scheduled to be drawn down over the next 18 months subject to certain, defined, operational milestones. The core objectives of the Innovation Programme are to retrieve and process data from the Toral drilling campaign in order to develop algorithmic software for use in exploration campaigns to correct drilling deviation. Biannual repayments of €21,822 begin in 2024, running for 7 years until 2031, with a fixed interest rate being set by the currently prevailing Euribor rate of nil per cent.
Europa Metals anticipates that the Grant will enable the Company to apply for reductions in taxes payable relating mainly to labour costs and is satisfied that the terms of the Grant will not prevent the Company from participating in other grant application processes save where there is a specific technological overlap.
Once the funds have demonstrably been spent on appropriate R&D exploration activity at the Toral Project by the Company, 70 per cent. of the total Grant will be repayable with the balancing 30 per cent. then not required to be repaid.
Toral Project Update
At Toral, the Company is working towards finalisation of a new, independent, economic report on the project, currently being undertaken by Bara Consulting. Certain elements of a Pre-Feasibility Study for the Toral Project are also underway with the bore hole