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Tinka Resources continues to advance its potentially 'world class' Ayawilca zinc project

Last updated: 17:40 26 Jun 2018 BST, First published: 13:40 08 Jun 2018 BST

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Tinka is focused on mining zinc in Peru

Tinka Resources Limited (CVE:TK) continues to advance  its potentially 'world class'  Ayawilca zinc project in Peru.

In April this year, the group said it was fully funded to execute its exploration programs at the project for the next 18 months.

It had just encountered high grade zinc mineralisation in the first step-out hole at West Ayawilca area of the property, which is a large, high grade discovery, which is still growing.

On June 26, Tinka unveiled a new discovery of "exceptional grade" at the West Ayawilca area. One hole hit exceptional grades of zinc sulphide mineralization at West Ayawilca in a new mineralised setting.

The highlight was 10.4 metres grading 44.0% zinc within a zone consisting of more than 90% zinc sulphides - the highest-grade zinc intersection ever encountered at Ayawilca over a significant interval.

And last month (May), it posted assays from six holes from the continuing stepout drilling, which showed one of the best intercepts ever from one area.

This hole hit 106.5 metres at a grade of 6.8 % zinc (uncut) from 237.3 metres depth at West Ayawilca.

The Zone 3 area was also beginning to show encouraging zinc intersections, and although the mineralisation is relatively deep, the company believes Zone 3 has the potential to add significant new resources to the project.

Tinka says 15,000m of drilling is planned for 2018 to expand zinc zones and test new targets and three drill rigs are currently operating.

PEA by end of fourth quarter

Near term goals for Ayawilca are metallurgical test results for zinc by the end of the second quarter and a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) by end of the fourth quarter.

So what is Ayawilca and are there other assets?

Ayawilca is a 150 sq km area 200 km northeast of Lima in Central Peru.

The company doubled the inferred resources at the Ayawilca zinc zone in 2017.

These are 42.7mln tonnes at 7.3% zinc equivalent, containing 5.6bn pounds of zinc metal and 10.5mln tonnes at 0.70% tin equivalent.

It lies 40 km northwest of the world-class Cerro de Pasco zinc-lead-silver mine, and 100 km south of the giant copper-zinc Antamina mine.  Tinka owns 100% of the concessions.

Colquipucro near surface silver deposit

Tinka also has the Colquipucro near surface silver deposit, which is what bought the company into the area in the first place (and where zinc was found beneath the silver) which lies around 2 kilometres north-northwest of zinc discovery.

There, the higher confidence indicated resource stands at 14.3mln ounces of contained silver at 60 g/t (grams per ton) silver, while inferred is 13.2mln ounces at 48 g/t.

In 2016, Tinka discovered a new zinc prospect at Pucarumi, which lies several kilometres northwest of the  inferred zinc resource and within its existing mining claims in central Peru.

The group is well funded, with C$18mln in cash, to expand resources and advance to the pre-feasibility stage, it says,

At the end of April it closed a second and final tranche of a private placing, raising a total of C$2.409mln, bringing the total amount raised through its bought deal, first tranche and second tranche to about C$16.2mln

Zinc prices higher

Tinka's progress comes encouragingly when zinc as a commodity is doing rather well.

The base metal is currently at highs of around US$1.35 per pound.

It’s the second big price spike since 2000 following record high prices of more than US$2 per pound in late 2006.

The World Bank predicts a more stable picture by 2030, when prices are expected to hover around US$1.09 per pound, giving zinc a strong economic forecast and boosting confidence for a junior like Tinka.

Zinc has been used in batteries for decades and recent research by Stormcrow Capital estimates that the emerging market for low cost zinc-air batteries for  energy storage could increase demand for the metal by 20mln tonnes.

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