Summary highlights of 2021 to date
· Agreement with Rosgeo concluded in March to form a globally significant battery metals and PGM district on the Kola Peninsula, positioning Eurasia among majors
· Wardell Armstrong International engaged in April for several comprehensive tasks including JORC resource audits which are almost complete and are expected to be announced shortly
· Proposal received in May for the potential acquisition of substantially all of the Company’s assets. Since then, additional interest from other parties is being considered by the Board
· Eurasia’s representative office in Japan was established
· Eurasia is now fully funded to fulfil its commitments in relation to the Rosgeo JV
· Three plants are now operating at the Company’s producing asset West Kytlim
· The Company maintains its focus on ESG including scope 1 to 3 carbon emissions
Chairman’s statement
‘The first half of 2021 has been a very active period for the Company both operationally and commercially.
We concluded a company transformational, legally binding agreement with Rosgeo covering 9 projects which together with Monchetundra and Monchetundra Flanks (including NKT, high grade nickel-copper-cobalt and PGM deposit) form a globally significant battery metals and PGM district on the Kola Peninsula, positioning our Company among majors in terms of combined resources of Eurasia and the projects included in the agreement with Rosgeo.
Post period-end, Konstantin Firstov joined Eurasia as CEO of our Kola operations from a Managing Director position in Rosgeo bringing additional operational expertise as the former head of open pit mining at Achinsk, the largest operation of Rusal, a leading company in the global aluminium industry, producing metal with a low carbon footprint.
After signing the Rosgeo agreement at the end of March, Eurasia conducted a tender among international technical auditors and in April engaged Wardell Armstrong International for several comprehensive tasks including JORC resource audits which are almost complete and will be announced shortly.
In May we received a proposal for the potential acquisition of substantially all of the Company’s assets and the Board decided to focus on this potential asset sale. Since then, we have seen additional interest from other parties. We have attracted top talent and top tier partners and advisers to prioritise and execute our strategy.
Tamerlan Abdikeev based in Tokyo joined the Board and Eurasia’s representative office in Japan was established.
Also in May we were offered a $20m private placement at the market price by a leading US institutional investor. In September we cut back to $15m from a larger proposal made by a consortium of US professional institutional investors, again without discount, at the market price of 26p. We are now fully funded to fulfil our commitments in relation to the Rosgeo JV.
We have successfully trebled our production capacity at West Kytlim, our ESG focussed PGM mine, while continuing to develop the electrification of the site to reduce the mine’s carbon footprint. To that end we have selected an electric dragline to minimise our impact on the environment as well as to increase the efficiency of the stripping and mining, thereby reducing costs. Thus, the next year is expected to be transformation for West Kytlim on both the mining side with a highly productive electric dragline and on the processing side with 3 plants already launched.
My thanks to the staff and the Board for their continued commitment to creating additional value for our shareholders. The Company is in a very strong position financially, with an excellent portfolio of assets, and in a buoyant market for the future facing green metals: battery metals for EVs and PGMs for the hydrogen economy.’
Christian Schaffalitzky, Executive Chairman
For further information, please contact:
Eurasia Mining Plc
Christian Schaffalitzky/ Keith Byrne
+44 (0)207 932 0418
