European Green Transition gets the go-ahead for drilling at Olserum, after community engagement meetings
EGT plans to commence drilling in the second half of 2024.
The permission means the company now has a valid work plan for an initial drilling program of up to 9,000 metres across 42 drill holes, with flexibility to alter the program within the approved working areas.
The work plan approval is valid for two years and includes a resource infill program at the existing Olserum resource.
It also includes further drilling to expand the scale of the project at the Olserum West prospect and the Djupedal prospect, which has returned assay values of up to 20.45% total rare earth oxides (TREO).
Ahead of any such development, EGT expects channel sampling results from Djupedal before the end of the first half of 2024.
Furthermore, the work plan also permits EGT to carry out additional low impact geophysical surveys within the working areas, both on the ground surface and in boreholes, if they are deemed necessary.
On 10 April 2024 EGT held a public meeting in Gamleby, Kalmar County, Sweden, in close proximity to Olserum. The meeting was part of the company's open and transparent community engagement policy, and follows an earlier meeting held in September 2023 when it first presented plans to local stakeholders.
Both meetings were well attended and well received. The company discussed the importance of the Olserum deposit as one of only a handful of known rare earths deposits in Europe, and the critical role that rare earths are playing in the green energy transition.
The directors of EGT believe that Olserum is particularly important in light of the recently adopted European Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) which seeks to secure domestic critical raw materials in Europe for Europe.
Separately, EGT also hosted a site visit by geologists from the Swedish Geological Survey (SGU) who plan a new regional mapping programme in the Olserum region. This programme is aimed at improving the understanding of the geology of this underexplored region which is highly prospective for critical metals such as rare earths.
In 2023, the SGU designated the Olserum rare earths project as one of Sweden’s projects of “National Interest” and EGT is supportive of the SGU’s ongoing initiatives to increase its understanding of the geology of the region.
“We welcome the approval for our drilling programme at our principal asset, the Olserum rare earth project, which is a key step on the project development timeline,” said Aiden Lavelle, chief executive of European Green Transition.
“Olserum was designated a project of National Interest by the Swedish Geological Survey and has the potential to become a significant European rare earth element resource. In addition to the Djupedal prospect nearby, our activities in the area will create jobs in the community and investment in the region, as well as potentially providing Europe’s industry with indigenous critical rare earth elements.”
View from Vox
In a tough market, EGT made a splash when it debuted strongly on Aim just a week ago. The shares opened at 10p and closed out the first week at 12p, after a brief push towards 13p. Part of the reason for that strength was the heavyweight backing the company has, which has allowed investors to move into the company with confidence that there will be support over the long-term. A decent amount of money was raised on listing – more than £4.6m – so dilutive fundraisings aren’t on the cards either.
But another reason for the initial strength was the prospect of plenty of newsflow in the coming months, and that’s now starting to arrive. This initial news about the permitting and the community engagement paves the way for more substantial news as the year progresses, in which real value could be created with the recovery of significant drill results. Separately, there’s also the possibility, previously flagged by the company, of deals relating to other assets in the green energy supply chain. All told, there’s still plenty for investors to look forward to.
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