[SMM Financial report] European Manganese Industry: focus on the Development of Chvaletice Manganese Project Resources

Published: Jul 23, 2019 10:56 (GMT+8)

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SMM7, March 23: recently, the European manganese industry released its financial report and resource storage scale for the second quarter of fiscal year 2019. SMM selected manganese-related information to compile:

The main business and current focus of the European manganese industry is the evaluation and potential development of the Chvaletice Manganese Project ("Project"), which involves the reprocessing of manganese deposits in tailings from historical mines in the Czech Republic to produce high purity manganese products in an environmentally friendly manner. For the six months ended March 31, 2019, the company's important projects are as follows (excerpts):

On 8 May 2019, the Company signed a confidential strategic agreement with consumers of battery raw materials (the "Contracting Party"), including a technical cooperation framework, whereby the parties intend to share technical and other information to allow the design and construction of the Company's proposed Chvaletice Manganese Project plant to meet the Party's long-term demand for environmentally friendly high-quality manganese products. The strategic agreement also offers the possibility of future off-take negotiations.

On 4 December 2018, the Company was granted an extension of its exploration licence until 31 May 2023, which ensured the Company's right to explore the entire deposit, which is also the validity of the initial mining license issued by the Czech Ministry of the Environment (30 April 2023).

On 17 October 2018, the company paid 14 million Czech kroner (US $815000) for the first time through its Czech subsidiary Mangan to acquire a 100 per cent stake in EP Chvaletice s.r.o ("EPCS"), a company with a large number of industrial areas near the Chvaletice manganese mine project.

A series of extensive laboratory surveys have been completed in one of the leading metallurgical research and development institutions in China and in several other laboratories around the world to determine the best process for converting manganese from Chvaletice tailings to HPEMM and / or HPMSM, while meeting safety and environmental standards in the Czech Republic and the European Union.

The Chvaletice Manganese Mine Project is located in the Czech Republic, in the towns of Chvaletice and Trnavka in the Labe Valley (Prague, the Czech capital, is located 90 km west). The Chvaletice Manganese Project plant is adjacent to the infrastructure that has been built, including an 820MW coal-fired power station that supplies electricity to the national grid, rail lines, roads and natural gas pipelines in the Czech Republic. The surrounding areas are industrialized and skilled labour is expected to come from the local market.

The Chvaletice manganese project resources are contained in three flotation tailings piles located on flat terrain below the floatation plant site, adjacent to the former Chvaletice open-pit mine and plant. Tailings are deposited from historical grinding operations and are used to recover manganese and extract pyrite for the production of sulfuric acid. The tailings are divided into three separate piles with a thickness of between 12 and 28 meters and a cumulative surface area of about one square kilometer.

Chvaletice's summary of mineral resources estimation:

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