19
March 2024
First Tin
Plc
("First
Tin" or "the Company")
Taronga Regional Exploration
Update
Regional Exploration has
Confirmed Excellent Upside Potential at Pound Flat and Battery Hill
Prospects, Increasing Confidence in a Hub and Spoke Concept for the
Taronga District
First Tin PLC, a tin development
company with advanced, low capex projects in Germany and Australia,
is pleased to announce that regional exploration conducted in
parallel with the Definitive Feasibility Study ("DFS") at its
Taronga Tin Project ("Taronga") in Australia, has shown excellent
potential for satellite deposits in the Company's large tenement
holdings in the district.
The project is owned by First Tin's
100% owned Australian subsidiary, Taronga Mines Pty Ltd
("TMPL").
The region is well mineralised with
tin and has historically produced over 83,000t tin in concentrate
between 1872 and 1984. 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
and eluvial/alluvial 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.
TMPL has focussed most of its effort
to date on the Taronga deposit itself, and has recently conducted
soil sampling over the deposit designed to:
1. Obtain a reference
for comparison with other mineralisation in the region.
2. Ensure no
mineralisation occurs in areas of planned infrastructure, including
waste rock emplacements and tailings co-disposal areas.
3. Identify any nearby
targets that may be potential satellite feed for the Taronga tin
processing facility.
Following this, TMPL compiled
results of soil sampling conducted by previous explorers, conducted
its own soil sampling over the Pound Flat prospect, and conducted
rock chip sampling over the Battery Hill prospect.
Results highlights:
· Soil
sampling at Pound Flat has confirmed that a good tin in soil
anomaly occurs there, with a similar intensity to that seen at
Taronga.
· Compilation of previous sampling at McDonalds has shown a soil
anomaly of similar intensity to that seen at Taronga occurs over
this prospect.
· Rock
chip sampling at Stannum has returned numerous plus 1% Sn assays
over an area of over 2,000m by 800m at the Battery Hill prospect,
with a best assay of 9.85% Sn.
TMPL has previously announced
results of drilling at the Tin Beetle prospect, approximately 8.5km
southeast of Taronga (Figure 1), with a best intercept of 48m @
0.18% Sn from 2m including 21m @ 0.32% Sn from 2m. This is
similar to intercepts obtained from the Taronga deposit and hence
Tin Beetle is a high priority target for further exploration and
definition work.
First Tin CEO, Bill Scotting
commented:
"While most of our effort during the
past two years has been directed toward completing the Feasibility
Study on our Taronga deposit, the First Tin team in Australia have
also been progressing some of the nearby regional targets to make
the proposed Taronga Tin Processing Facility a hub for several
potential satellite deposits. This may enable both increased
tin production and extend mine life beyond the life of the Taronga
deposit itself.
There are many possible targets in
the vicinity, and TMPL has focussed to date only on known zones of
sheeted tin-greisen veins similar to those found at the Taronga
deposit, building on our unique knowledge base and lessons learned
from work on that deposit.
The four main targets mentioned
above are the most advanced and are all at the target definition or
drill testing/resource definition stage. The potential for a hub
and spoke concept has been significantly upgraded by this work
stream.
We look forward to presenting
additional exploration results as we progress these and other
targets in the district over the coming months and
years."
Details
Three new targets have now been
identified as discussed below:
Pound Flat
This target is located approximately
15km south of Taronga (Figure 1). Work by TMPL has consisted
of compiling and assessing all previous exploration data as well as
undertaking the current programme of detailed soil sampling.
The soil sampling has defined a soil anomaly that is 1,800m long by
270m wide at plus 500ppm Sn, and still open to the northeast
(Figure 2). This compares well with the Taronga tin in soil
anomaly, which is 3,300m long by 250m wide at plus 500ppm
Sn.
The area has previously been
partially drill tested in the early 1980s, with better results
including 98.5m @ 0.13% Sn from 13.5m, 37m @ 0.13% Sn from 65m and
49m @ 0.13% Sn from 1m. These results are similar to the
drilling results seen at Taronga.
Extension and infill soils are
currently being collected to better define the target zone prior to
drill testing.
Battery Hill (Stannum)
The Stannum area is located
approximately 23km northeast of Taronga and is within the Mole
Leucogranite itself (Figures 1 and 3). The area has been
mined historically for alluvial, deep lead and hard rock tin in
narrow high grade veins.
The intensity of tin lodes and veins
in the Battery Hill area is higher than is generally seen in the
Mole Leucogranite and it was decided to conduct a programme of
mapping and rock chip sampling to test the frequency and tin
content of these veins.
The sampling has shown that moderate
to high grade tin in rocks occurs over an area of at least 2,000m
by 800m, with highest assays being 1.71% Sn, 2.47% Sn, 6.27% Sn,
1.88% Sn and 9.85% Sn. These are very high values and confirm
the presence of multiple narrow, high grade tin veins. Based
on this, the potential for a zone of sheeted tin-greisen veining
can be seen and a programme of soil sampling is proposed as initial
follow-up.
McDonalds
The McDonalds prospect is located
approximately 5km north-northeast of the Taronga deposit.
Compilation of previous explorers' data has shown that tin
mineralisation at the McDonalds prospect is located on the Mole
Leucogranite contact and may be an extension of the historically
mined Butlers Mine, which occurs along strike approximately 3,500m
to the northeast, within the granite itself. This was a very
high grade mine and is reported to have produced 21,000t tin ore
grading over 1.5% Sn.
Soil sampling by EZ in the early
1980s identified two parallel zones of tin in soil anomalism: the
main zone is 2,000m long by 200m wide at plus 500ppm Sn, comparable
with, but shorter than, the Taronga anomaly. The second zone
occurs around 200m to the north and is 1,200m long by 100m wide at
plus 500ppm Sn (Figure 4).
Aus Tin conducted a limited drilling
programme in 2014 which returned intercepts of 14m @ 0.52% Sn from
47m, 22m @ 0.19% Sn from 0m and 5m @ 0.18% Sn from 11m. These
drillholes are not considered to have been optimally located and
significant potential can be seen for potentially higher grade
mineralisation than at Taronga.
Additional sampling and mapping are
planned before any further drill follow-up.
Summary
In summary, good potential can be
seen for similar or improved grade tin mineralisation as that found
at Taronga in at least four additional prospects:
1. Tin Beetle
2. Pound Flat
3. Battery Hill
(Stannum)
4. McDonalds
In addition, many other prospects
are yet to be followed up in any detail and hence potential for
satellite deposits to Taronga is considered to be excellent.
These could add to mine life and/or enable increased annual tin
production. They all appear to have similar characteristics
to Taronga, and hence may be amenable to upgrading on site by a
mobile crushing circuit, prior to trucking to Taronga for gravity
concentration.
The recent soil sampling at Taronga
has provided an excellent yardstick against which to measure the
potential of other deposits in the district - a tool that has been
lacking up until now.
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.
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.