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Name change to Europa Metals highlights Ferrum Crescent’s new focus

Published: 18:00 05 Apr 2018 AEST

Zinc Pill
“Now is the time to do something more meaningful” says executive director Laurence Read

Ferrum Crescent Limited (LON:FCR) has seen much change over the past twelve months.

A boardroom overhaul and a maiden JORC for its Toral zinc-lead project in northern Spain were two major developments.

The next move will see the £2.98mln company become Europa Metals Limited, emphasising that its focus is squarely towards zinc-lead and precious metals in Europe.

With zinc prices currently hovering around a 5-year high, the timing looks propitious.

Scoping study in the pipeline

A £1mln fund raise will pay for a scoping study at the wholly-owned Toral, which will go a long way to determine the potential of the deposit.

“Now is the time to do something more meaningful” says executive director Laurence Read.

A drilling programme in the summer will look for additional metal along the current strike and, in tandem with a review of existing drill core, feed into the scoping study.

Industry veteran on board

As it shifts focus solely towards Toral, the company can count on the input of mining industry veteran Colin Bird, who became non-executive director after becoming a strategic shareholder in 2017.

Daniel Smith has also been brought in to beef up the finance and administrative functions.

As a cost-saving measure, the company has chosen not to appoint a chief executive as this will free up more cash for exploration.

‘Undoubted potential’

The maiden JORC resource at Toral contained 16mln tonnes of ore grading 6.9% zinc equivalent, including lead credits, and 25 grams per tonne silver.

In terms of metal in the ground, that amounts to 670,000 tonnes of zinc, 540,000 tonnes of lead and 13mln ounces of silver.

And there could be more, as the deposit remains open along strike to the east and down dip.

With the exploration licence extending to 2020, and zinc prices soaring, the company has more than enough incentive to find out.

The name change to Europa Metals also will mark the exit from Africa to focus solely on the more stable Europe.

‘We’ve got nothing to do with iron anymore,” added Read.

Toral, though, is down the road from “proper world-class smelters”, which will be very handy if zinc’s renaissance continues.