Ormonde Mining wins battle to access land in Spain

Irish-listed exploration firm Ormonde Mining has won a legal battle to access land it wants to compulsorily purchase to build a tungsten mine in Spain.

The Regional Government of Castilla y Leon has approved a declaration of occupation over the land at Barruecopardo, Ormond said.

The firm said some procedural and legal steps remain before it can access the land blocks.

"The decision by the regional government to vote in favour of the declaration of urgent occupation on the remaining lands required to enable development of the project, is a major success for the company," said Ormonde chief executive Steve Nicol.

“The decision, coming well ahead of the date required by our optimised schedule, shows the level of support that exists for the project at all levels within the Spanish region in which we operate,” he added.

Ormonde was granted the mining concession for the Barruecopardo tungsten project in late 2014. The group’s 2015 annual report, published on Tuesday, shows commissioning of the project has been pushed back to late 2017, having originally been slated to commence in late 2016.