29
May 2024
First Tin
Plc
("First
Tin" or "the Company")
Taronga Exploration
Update
Taronga Mines Pty Ltd has consolidated its tenement holdings
in the Taronga district by acquiring an additional licence, EL
9200, and has confirmed and extended the tin in soil anomaly at
nearby Pound Flat
First Tin PLC, a tin development
company with advanced, low capex projects in Germany and Australia,
is pleased to announce that its 100% owned Australian subsidiary,
Taronga Mines Pty Ltd ("TMPL") has acquired an additional
Exploration Licence (EL 9200) that consolidates its landholdings in
the Taronga district, and has extended and closed off the soil
anomaly at nearby Pound Flat.
The region around Taronga is well
mineralised with tin and has historically produced over 83,000t tin
in concentrate between 1872 and 1984. The Taronga deposit has a
measured, indicated and inferred resource base of 138,000t tin,
reported in accordance with the 2012 JORC Code and Guidelines, as
previously announced (14 September 2024). Mineralisation is
believed to be related to the late stages of emplacement of the
Mole Leucogranite, a large, complex, multiple granite intrusion
located north of Emmaville in northeast New South Wales (Figure
1).
Many old tin workings, both primary,
eluvial/alluvial and palaeo-alluvial (deep lead[1]) are known in the district and several zones of
sheeted tin greisen veins, similar to the Taronga tin deposit, have
been located by previous workers. These are shown in Figure
1.
EL
9200
The new licence, EL9200, covers the
majority of the known deep lead deposits in the district as shown
in Figure 1. These have been the source of around half the tin
historically mined in the district and represent an attractive
target to supplement tin production from the Taronga hard rock
deposit, for which positive results of a feasibility study have
recently been announced (2 May 2024). The grades in the deep leads
can be significant, with historical reports of 1.5 hundredweight of
cassiterite per cubic yard (approximately 3% Sn). For
comparison, average grades mined in alluvial operations are around
0.02% to 0.10% Sn.
As well as the deep leads, potential
exists for extensions of the Tin Beetle and Pound Flat
mineralisation into the new licence area as shown on Figure
1.
Pound Flat
Soil sampling at Pound Flat has now
been completed. This has confirmed that a good tin in soil
anomaly occurs there, with a similar intensity to that seen at
Taronga, over a strike length of around 1.8km. A compilation of
previous work, mainly by Newmont and Billiton, shows that the
anomaly is coincident with previously identified mineralisation
(Figure 2), and appears to accurately define the two main zones
identified by those companies. Notably, some of the better parts of
the soil anomaly have no previous drilling.
The compilation shows mineralisation
very similar to that found at Taronga that comes to surface.
Better near surface results include:
· 41.5m
@ 0.15% Sn from 13.5m (top 13.5m not assayed)
· 49m @
0.18% Sn from 1m
· 49m @
0.13% Sn from 1m
· 27m @
0.15% Sn from 1m
· 16m @
0.14% Sn from 0m
The mineralisation is now
interpreted as a series of en-echelon NE trending dilation zones in
an overall ENE trending shear system. This new interpretation opens
up the project for additional drill testing in areas with
previously untested high tin in soil values.
Follow-up is currently being
planned, in particular on the alluvial/eluvial and weathered part
of the deposit which could potentially be extracted and upgraded
via jigs for transport to the Taronga processing facility without
any significant crushing being required. A simple portable crushing
plant could allow extraction of deeper and/or less weathered
mineralisation.
First Tin CEO, Bill Scotting
commented:
"The acquisition of EL 9200 provides
First Tin with access to the deep leads, a major part of the
previous production profile in the Emmaville district. Historically
the grade mined was very high and therefore could form a target for
high grade supplementary feed for any processing plant established
at Taronga, approximately 7km away by existing roads.
The final soil sampling results for
Pound Flat appear to have extended the target slightly and to have
now closed off the anomaly. The close agreement between known
mineralisation and the soil anomaly once again shows the importance
of soil sampling as a regional exploration tool.
We consider Pound Flat a high
priority target for future follow-up work."
Details
Enquiries:
First Tin
|
Via SEC
Newgate below
|
Bill Scotting - Chief Executive
Officer
|
|
Arlington Group Asset Management Limited (Financial Advisor
and Joint Broker)
|
|
Simon Catt
|
020 7389
5016
|
|
|
WH
Ireland Limited (Joint Broker)
|
|
Harry Ansell
|
020 7220
1670
|
|
|
SEC
Newgate (Financial Communications)
|
|
Elisabeth Cowell / Molly
Gretton
|
FirstTin@secnewgate.co.uk
|
Notes to Editors
First Tin is an ethical, reliable,
and sustainable tin production company led by a team of renowned
tin specialists. The Company is focused on becoming a tin supplier
in conflict-free, low political risk jurisdictions through the
rapid development of high value, low capex tin assets in Germany
and Australia, which have been de-risked significantly, with
extensive work undertaken to date.
First Tin has a resource base of
309,700t tin reported in accordance with the 2012 JORC Code and
Guidelines.
Tin is a critical metal, vital in
any plan to decarbonise and electrify the world, yet Europe has
very little supply. Rising demand, together with shortages, is
expected to lead tin to experience sustained deficit markets for
the foreseeable future.
First Tin's goal is to use
best-in-class environmental standards to bring two tin mines into
production in three years, providing provenance of supply to
support the current global clean energy and technological
revolutions.