LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Atalaya Mining announced on Tuesday that its wholly-owned Proyecto Masa Valverde (PMV) has been granted the unified environmental authorisation by the Junta de Andalucía.
The AIM-traded firm began the application process in December 2021.

It described the authorisation as an integrated process, combining the environmental impact assessment and other authorisations, and specified requirements to avoid, prevent, and minimise a project's impacts on the environment and cultural heritage of the area.

The granting of the authorisation was a "significant step" for Atalaya, as it would allow the company to file for the exploitation permit, which, once granted, would enable the development of the PMV project to begin.

PMV consists of several volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits and targets, and is located around 28 kilometres south of Riotinto's 15 million tonnes-per-annum processing plant.

Atalaya acquired a 100% interest in PMV in October 2020, and in April last year it announced a new independent mineral resource estimate for the Masa Valverde and Majadales deposits.

The development of PMV would involve underground mining of the Masa Valverde and Majadales deposits, which would be accessed by constructing a ramp.

Mined material would then be transported by public road to the existing Riotinto plant for processing.

The board said that development scenario was consistent with Atalaya's strategy of developing Riotinto into a central processing hub for its assets in the Riotinto district.

Moving forward, Atalaya said it was planning to complete further metallurgical testing and infill drilling in order to upgrade the existing mineral resource to higher confidence levels.

The three core rigs currently active at PMV would focus on step-out drilling at the Masa Valverde deposit, resource definition drilling at the Campanario Trend, and step-out drilling around the new discovery made at the Mojarra Trend.

Atalaya said the first drill testing of recently-defined coincident electromagnetic and gravity anomalies was also planned.

"This is a very pleasing outcome and the 15-month turnaround from the submission of our proposal highlights that Andalucía is a world-class mining jurisdiction," said chief executive officer Alberto Lavandeira.

"It is also testament to our focus on developing sustainable operations which show respect to the natural environment and contribute to the development of the regions where we operate."

Lavandeira said that with the milestone now achieved, the firm was planning to complete additional work and continue its exploration campaign to upgrade the existing mineral resource, which had yielded positive results to date.

"We look forward to updating shareholders as this work progresses.

"This positive decision has strengthened our confidence that PMV could become an important satellite deposit in the Riotinto District by delivering higher grade material to our existing processing plant."

At 1130 BST, shares in Atalaya Mining were up 0.22% at 340.75p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.

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