Venture Minerals Limited (ASX:VMS, OTC:VTMLF) has uncovered a priority exploration target along strike from the main tin deposits at its Mount Lindsay Tin-Tungsten Project in northwest Tasmania.
During exploration drilling, the company hit 11 metres of sulphide-rich skarn — a type of rock that’s changed by hot, chemically active fluids and can host tin and tungsten mineralisation.
The broader Mount Lindsay asset is one of the largest undeveloped tin projects in the world, playing host to more than 80,000 tonnes of the versatile commodity and Venture's first exploration drilling program at the project in eight years, firmed up the new target.
This potential discovery comes as the electric vehicle metal gains popularity as a critical mineral, with the commodity currently trading at around US$37,000 a tonne — four times the price of copper.
“Major landholding in premier tin district”
Commenting on the skarn discovery, Venture Minerals managing director Andrew Radonjic said: “Further success from the first exploration drill program at Mount Lindsay since 2013 clearly demonstrates the potential of the project to deliver another tin discovery."
“The first two of 12 priority drill targets from the 48 EM anomalies delineated by the 2019 EM survey have already intersected potential tin-bearing skarns, thereby increasing the potential to significantly grow the current tin resource base," he said.
“Not only does Venture hold a major landholding in a premier tin district, it is also well located in a globally recognised tier-one environmental, social and governance (ESG) hub, allowing the company the opportunity to develop an ESG-compliant tin-tungsten mine."
Uncovering the tin target
Recently, Venture embarked on a diamond drilling program designed to test along strike from two of the existing Mount Lindsay skarns that host the company’s tin and tungsten deposits.
One of the holes was commissioned to chase up a coincident electromagnetic and surface geochem anomaly, which sits along strike and down-plunge from the Crimson Creek Formation — the host rock sequence that includes Mount Lindsay’s tin deposits.
During this hole, Venture uncovered 11 metres of sulphide-rich skarn, which is typical of the project’s style of tin-tungsten mineralisation.
The latest discovery comes not long after a previous drill hole hit 16 metres of potentially tin-bearing magnetite skarn during a program targeting extensions to the Renison Mine Sequence.
This prospective result lies along strike from the Renison Bell asset — one of the world’s largest and highest-grade tin mines.
Following the discovery of a potential new Mount Lindsay style mineralisation system, Venture has also committed to a downhole EM survey while the company awaits assay results from the most recent discovery drill hole.
One of the world’s largest tin projects
Since it started exploring in 2007, Venture has executed around 83,000 metres of diamond core drilling over Mount Lindsay, with the activity helping define JORC-compliant resources.
At a 0.2% tin equivalent cut-off, the tin and tungsten play hosts 45 million tonnes of resource, grading at 0.2% tin and 0.1% tungsten for 81,000 tonnes of contained tin and 3.2 million metric tonne units (mtu) of tungsten.
Roughly 70% of the project’s resource lies in either the measured or indicated categories.
Importantly, a feasibility study has already taken place over the Tasmanian asset, with test-work determining Venture could generate a 75% tin concentrate that could attract price premiums.
Venture owns 100% of the tenure that hosts both the Mount Lindsay tin-tungsten deposit and all the surrounding prospects.
Tin’s meteoric rise
Venture is exploring in a premier, globally renowned tin district as the price of the metal reaches new highs.
The electric vehicle metal has seen demand rise over the last five years, with spot prices jumping by around 175% since early 2016.
As both an electrical contact and battery material, tin has myriad applications for the burgeoning electric vehicle, robotics, renewable energy and computer markets.
However, it’s in short supply: there are currently less than two days of global tin supply held in stockpiles by the London Metal Exchange (LME).
Tin is now recognised as a fundamental metal to the battery revolution and new technology, so the International Tin Association is predicting a surge in demand — driven by the lithium-ion battery market — of up to 60,000 tonnes per annum by 2030
By comparison, global tin consumption in 2020 clocked in at 328,400 tonnes.
With a new tin target in the works and room for further discovery, Venture Minerals is primed to fuel the boom.
Shares have been up as much as 9.5% to an intraday high of A$0.058.