Euro Manganese to pass Czech project milestone with filing of EIA Notification

Euro Manganese Inc (ASX:EMN) (CVE:EMN) (FRA:E06) will pass a key milestone with an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification to be filed for its Chvaletice Manganese Project in the Czech Republic. The EIA notification will be filed with the Czech Ministry of Environment on June 30, 2020, and this triggers the project permitting process. Studies confirm that Chvaletice is not expected to cause any significant adverse impacts to the environment or to human health with the project designed to meet all Czech and European Union environmental, health and safety standards. Extensive studies In describing this as a major milestone for Euro Manganese, president and CEO Marco Romero said: “The EIA Notification is the culmination of years of work on the ground, including extensive environmental baseline and impact studies, and a multi-million-dollar investment to plan and design a world-class high-purity manganese producer in Europe. “With this filing, we will also present our project development plan, which benefitted from extensive consultation with local communities and stakeholders, from whom we received invaluable input. “The plan features the application of strict and very high environmental, health, safety and social standards. “The studies indicate that, on balance, this project is positive for the environment, local residents and the Czech Republic.” Reprocessing waste The project entails reprocessing a large anthropogenic deposit of manganese carbonate, contained in waste from a historical mining operation. Chvaletice stands to become Europe’s only primary producer of high-purity manganese products, without the adverse impacts of hard-rock mining and the resulting generation of large quantities of new waste. Site remediation Romero said: “Environmental protection and stewardship are front and centre in this project, which is located on a site significantly impacted by historical mining activity. “A key associated benefit of the Chvaletice Manganese Project is that it will result in the rehabilitation, restoration and reclamation of a polluted site through the implementation of the highest environmental standards and engineering practices. “Our goal is to competitively produce ultra-high purity manganese products with best-in-class environmental and social performance. “Nothing less than that is expected by manufacturers and buyers of batteries in the rapidly growing electric vehicle market.” EMN and wholly-owned Czech subsidiary Mangan Chvaletice sro engaged the services of Bilfinger Tebodin Czech Republic sro to prepare the EIA Notification, following completion of extensive environmental baseline studies and all necessary environmental impact studies prepared by various expert consultants. The proposed project is based on the development plan and process flowsheet presented in the preliminary economic assessment issued in March 2019. Value-add component Bilfinger Tebodin’s managing director Pavel Celunda said: “We appreciated the professionalism and high environmental and technical standards that have been applied by the EMN and Mangan teams since we began to work with them in 2016. “The company has implemented a proactive and diligent approach to minimising the environmental and social impacts of the proposed operation and, importantly, incorporated into the project a value-adding environmental restoration of this polluted site.” Numerous detailed expert studies were prepared as part of Chvaletice’s development over the past four years. These include a comprehensive site-wide biological survey; a detailed air dispersion model; an acoustic/noise impact study; a road and rail transportation study; a site-wide hydrogeological survey; a Health Impact Assessment; an 'Impact on Landscape Character Study'; and a 'Reclamation and Remediation Study'.