Its newly formed subsidiary EMA Resources will acquire all the share capital of Romanian company Blueberry Ridge, holder of the Blueberry project, with the new shares comprising 70.59% of EMA's enlarged share capital, giving Vast a 29.41% holding.

Retention of the interest will be conditional on Vast's EMA procuring funding of US$1 million by the end of August.

Vast said it intended to develop EMA into a standalone enterprise large enough to justify an initial public offering by the end of 2019.

It said it would incur no material cost commitments, as all pre-IPO costs — estimated at $2 million — were expected to be funded by third-party finance, although Vast would pay a fee of 10% of the pre-IPO costs to secure management and control of future mining operations, the exploration programme and the IPO process.

The 7.285sq.km Blueberry project hosts prospective polymetallic mineralisation and is situated in Romania's Golden Quadrilateral, which also hosts the adjacent Baia de Aries gold mine, the 17.1 million ounces Rosia Montana mine and 7.2Moz Rovina Valley project.

Sample values of up to 22.4g/t of gold were obtained from historic soil sampling, with drilling programmes and assaying underway to support an inferred JORC mineral resource for gold, as well as silver, copper, lead and zinc.

Vast CEO Andrew Prelea said "the reinvigoration of the Romanian mining industry remains a central pillar of Vast's future growth strategy", and the company would benefit from the project's upside potential, while safeguarding investors from significant dilution.

"Work has already started at Blueberry and we look forward to reporting the results of drilling in the coming weeks in order to begin to give the market a tangible sense of the size and quality of this significant mineralised system in addition to our path to developing the project and ultimately crystallising value for Vast shareholders through a proposed IPO," he said.

Vast's shares moved up 1.52% on the news to 57p (US72c).