Meridian Mining SE announces that the ANM Agência Nacional de Mineração has approved a trial mining licence Guia de Utilização on Jaburi licence 886643/2008 at the Espigão Project. Guia n° 48/2019 was approved for the production of 30,000t of Manganese oxide concentrate ("Mnox") per annum, and is valid until 13/09/2021. The notice of approval was published in the Diário Oficial da União on the 23 December 2019. Meridian licence 886643/2008 is located on the southern margin of the Espigão Project Area, and hosts the Jaburi Plant infrastructure. Manganese oxide vein systems are hosted by fine-grained granites in the area. Gabbroic to pyroxenitic intrusive stocks and dykes locally cut the granite basement. Mineralized structures typically trend east to east-north-east, and are cut by north-west trending cross faults. The licence area straddles the hinge zone to the deep-seated boundary fault separating younger sediments of the Pimenta Bueno graben to the south from the crystalline basement to the north. The licence area hosts many of the higher-quality occurrences of manganese oxide. The occurrences contain lower levels of trace metal impurities, and have a higher proportion of the ore mineral pyrolusite. Past analyses of product stockpiles have reported maximum assay values of 59.4% Mn. The region occurs in a more stripped regolith profile on ground rising from the lowlands of the basin area to the south, and thus lack the laterites that are associated with some of the past regional production areas on the plateaus of the Espigão Project. The low phosphorous contents, the high Mn:Fe ratios, and the low levels of accessory metals have made the Jaburi manganese oxide concentrates a targeted product for blending in speciality alloys, and for fertilizer products. Past extraction has been targeted from a range of prospects: Jaburi 1 - 5, Jaburi East, Jaburi West and Jaburi Novo. Production went into a hiatus period in August 2018 whilst the final report was under review. Approval of the Final Report was published on 21/08/2019, the company commenced further evaluation of the licence area. One new colluvial field has been delineated by hand-auger sampling in the eastern sector of the Jaburi 3 region. The new region extends over 400m in an east-west direction, and 50-150m in a north-south direction. This shows some promise in the potential for definition of further production sources through future exploration and pre-production activity. Several manganese colluvial occurrences have also been identified in a new area to the southwest of the plant – this region is yet to be systematically evaluated. The northern group of occurrences located 3 - 4km north of the Jaburi Plant will be targeted for future recommencement of production, whilst future exploration continues on the recently identified southern occurrences. The Jaburi licence is also of interest in hosting the SW extension of the Gracioso Target – an area of iron-oxide breccia accompanied by coincident conductivity and radiometric anomaly. This along with other deep-seated magnetic and conductivity anomalies1 will form part of a future focus on Cu-Au exploration, based on an exploration model for a zoned polymetallic mineral system2.