We’ve Assisted ‘Variscan Mines’ in the Acquisition of Two Advanced Zinc Projects in Spain

Wardell Armstrong International (WAI) were engaged by Variscan Mines Limited (Variscan) to undertake a high-level Due Diligence of the Novales-Udias and Guajaraz Projects, Spain. Variscan is an ASX listed Australian resource company focused on exploring and developing mineral deposits and the work completed by WAI has assisted Variscan in the successful acquisition of the Novales-Udias and Guajaraz Projects on the 29th July 2019. Varsican believes this acquisition to be a highly strategic and valuable growth opportunity for the company.

The Due Diligence work included an initial desk-top review of various documents and data with subsequent site visits, accompanying Variscan, to verify the data and visit the surface and underground mine workings. Much of the data is in Spanish, and only available as hard copies and reproduced images, thus WAI utilised consultants with the necessary in-country experience and language skills in order to complete this task. Part of the Due Diligence work involved a meeting with the director of the Escuela Politécnica de Ingeniería de Minas y Energía Torrelavega (part of the University of Cantabria and School of Mines), a partial review of the data archives (relative to the Projects) at the University, as well as informal discussions with former miners who were able to provide invaluable information of the projects and former operations.

The Novales-Udias project is centred around the former producing Novales underground mine and is only 10Km from the formerly producing Reocin Zn Mine (62Mt at 9.7% Zn and 1/0% Pb) which is considered one of the world’s largest Mississippi-Valley type (MVT) deposits. The Guajaraz Project is centred around the former producing La Union underground mine together with the adjacent Mina La Blanca and Mina Manolita mines which forms a large surrounding exploration opportunity.