Eurasia Mining PLC will be granted an exploration license covering 71.1 square kilometers adjacent to its majority-owned West Kytlim platinum group metals mine in the Ural Mountains.

Mineralization from West Kytlim is known to extend into the new license area, which extends around the existing open pit. Uralnedra, the Ural subsoil use agency, approved the grant of the exploration permit to Eurasia Mining subsidiary Kozinsky Kamen.

The final award of the license is expected within 30 days, the company said Dec. 17.

Eurasia Mining applied for the new license in February, under rules that allow an existing license holder to apply for exploration ground directly adjacent or surrounding previously identified mineral reserves, to a limit of 5 kilometers.

The company had already drilled several areas within the new license between 2006 and 2016 and will now compile the data to prioritize follow-up exploration.

The alluvial West Kytlim mining operation produced 5,300 ounces of raw platinum in 2018 with significant credits for palladium, iridium, rhodium and gold, according to the company. The original permit covers 21.5 square kilometers and is valid until 2040.

Eurasia Mining's shares appreciated significantly in November after it received approval for its Monchetundra palladium-platinum project on Russia's Kola Peninsula.