Emerita Resources Corp. has been awarded a €108,877 grant by the Andalusian Regional Government and European Union funding to advance metallurgical innovation at its wholly-owned Iberian Belt West project in Spain.

The non-dilutive funding supports the 23-month IBW-3METAu research and development project at Emerita’s facilities in Puebla de Guzmán. The program carries a total eligible budget of €311,077, with the grant covering 35% of eligible costs under the Andalusia ERDF 2021-2027 Program. The award is payable as a single payment following completion and justification of the eligible activities, subject to compliance with the terms of the award.

Work focuses on optimizing advanced metallurgical processes to enhance copper, zinc and lead concentrate quality for European smelters, recover high-purity antimony as a Critical Raw Material, and generate higher-value metallic products closer to the mine site. Iberian Belt West comprises the Infanta, El Cura and La Romanera polymetallic deposits in the western Iberian Pyrite Belt.

“We are pleased that the Junta de Andalusia, in a shared initiative with European Union, view the IBW Project as one with potential to be an important source of raw materials for the European Union. This grant represents non-dilutive funding and support for a program to optimize concentrate marketability, metal recoveries and project economics. Through innovation, successful findings from this R&D work will help de-risk the path toward industrial-scale processing while creating a value-chain that meets the Critical Raw Materials demand as announced by the European Union.”

— Joaquin Merino, President and CEO

The financing adds to Emerita’s financial backing, which includes a credit agreement with Nebari Natural Resources Credit Fund II, LP amended in December 2025 to provide up to USD$50,000,000 in available tranches to advance the project.

Emerita expects to publish the results of the Prefeasibility Study for Iberian Belt West during the third quarter of 2026. Meanwhile, regional activity continues to highlight the operational scale of the district, with Sandfire Resources reporting that its MATSA operations achieved a record annualised throughput rate of 4.8Mt in the June 2026 quarter.

Read the full announcement: Emerita Resources Awarded 108,877 Euros R&D Grant from Andalusian Government and EU Funding to Advance Metallurgical Innovation for the IBW Project