Receipt of approval for the Mining Operations Plan (MOP) from the NSW Department of Planning & Environment is the culmination of an approvals process that commenced in May 2015. The Company will now seek to implement its development plan for site establishment and initial mining, targeting commencement before the end of June 2019.
The initial establishment of Taronga Stage 1 is currently contemplated to be funded by way of the recently completed private placement and announced Share Purchase Plan. The majority of expenditure for Taronga Stage 1 is forecast for the second half of 2019 to coincide with the expected sustained cashflows from the Granville Tin Project. The Company is also progressing discussions with potential concentrate off‐ take counterparties and is exploring the opportunity for associated project funding.
Brian Moller, Chairman of Aus Tin Mining said “Final approval for Taronga Stage 1 represents a major milestone for the Company. An enormous amount of work has historically been completed on the Taronga Project by groups such as BHP and Newmont, but Aus Tin Mining’s exciting program including large scale trial mining and pilot processing will aim to demonstrate the Proof of Concept that will enable the development of large‐scale tin mining operations within one the Australia’s more productive tin fields.”
Background on Taronga
The Taronga Tin Project is the world’s fifth largest undeveloped tin reserve, based on a JORC resource of 57,200 tonnes of contained tin, plus 26,400 tonnes of contained copper and 4.4Moz of silver 1. The Company completed a Pre‐Feasibility Study in 2014 that demonstrated the technical and economic viability of a project treating 2.5Mtpa of ore, producing an average 2,800 tonnes per annum of contained tin over nine years within the second‐quartile of global cash cost. In 2015 the Company commenced the approvals process to undertake trial mining and pilot processing of 340,000 tonnes of ore to evaluate several areas of potential upside, including resource grade, tin recovery, recovery of by‐product credits and the assessment of resource extension and/or exploration upside. The Stage 1 operation is now fully permitted.
Tin is a high‐value metal utilised in electronics (solder) with identified potential growth through energy generation and storage, specifically electric vehicles, advanced robotics and renewal energy. Rio Tinto has identified tin as the metal most impacted by new technology. LME tin inventories are at historically low levels and the lack of new tin mines being developed is set to exacerbate a long‐term global deficit. The Australian Dollar tin price has been trending upwards since 2004 and recently exceeded A$30,000/t, prices not seen since 2011.
Source: Company Press Release
