EMED announced that the provincial government of Andalucia has unblocked the process required to grant the mineral rights for the Rio Tinto Mine to EMED Tartessus, the company’s wholly-owned Spanish subsidiary. Further, the government has made a decision on the tailings dam issue and ruled that EMED will assume formal responsibility for its maintenance and operation.

Fox-Davies Capital comments: “These two events represent a step forward for the permitting process of the mine. The decision means that the minerals rights can now be legally transferred to EMED and they can get on with the business of progressing the approval process. Having formal responsibility for the tailings dam means the company will no longer be beholden to small local third party landholders who bought up 66% of the land below the dams after the mine closed.

‘”There is still a lot of hard work to be done by EMED before the company can count on a mining permit and recommencement of production, but at least the permitting process can resume a normal course of action as soon as they have fully clarified tenure and land access.