AfriTin Mining Ltd (LON:ATM) said a Definitive Feasibility Study on its flagship asset, the Uis tin mine in Namibia, confirmed the viability of expanding the current Phase 1 mining and processing facility.
The expansion would result in a 67% increase in tin concentrate production to 1,200 tonnes per annum. Significant exploration upside remains as the study only includes two of the 16 historically mined pegmatites and it excludes tantalum and lithium concentrate as potential by-products.
"Publication of AfriTin's inaugural Definitive Feasibility study marks another significant milestone for the company and will lead to the completion of the first phase of development of what could potentially be the biggest open cast tin and technology metal deposits in the world,” said chief executive Anthony Viljoen.
“The DFS confirms the highly attractive economics from a low-cost modular expansion of the current Phase 1 at Uis which can be implemented in eight months. The DFS also coincides with the company achieving its first full quarter of steady state production at the Phase 1 plant as a global tin prices reach a 10-year high.”
The capital cost estimate for the project is US$5.7mln.
An initial proved and probable ore reserve estimate over the V1 and V2 pegmatites of the Uis mine, totalled 15.6 million tonnes of ore at an average grade of 0.138% tin containing 21,536 tonnes of tin metal and an 18-year mine life.
“The initial JORC (2012)-compliant ore reserve estimate over the V1 and V2 pegmatites, validates the long-term feasibility of our flagship operation at the Uis tin mine and emphasizes the benefits that the deposit derives from the scalability of the project,” said Viljoen. “Importantly, the reserve only forms a portion of the historically declared reserve, that the company is in the process of converting into modern JORC compliance standards.”
“We are especially pleased with the robust economics of the study which provide us with an opportunity to substantially increase the revenue and profit margin of the current operation, while importantly de-risking the expansion of the project into the much larger Phase 2 operation that is intended to be 6 to 10 times bigger than the phase 1 operation,” he added.