TIDMATM
RNS Number : 0587V
AfriTin Mining Ltd
12 April 2021
12 April 2021
AfriTin Mining Limited
("AfriTin" or the "Company")
Tantalum and Lithium By-Product Test Work Programme
AfriTin Mining Limited (AIM: ATM), an African tin mining company
with its flagship asset, the Uis Tin Mine ("Uis") in Namibia, is
pleased to provide an update on its metallurgical test work
programme for potential by-products to its current tin concentrate
product.
Highlights:
-- The Uis Tin Mine JORC(2012)-compliant mineral resource
estimate includes ancillary metals with an inventory of 6,091
tonnes of contained tantalum (Ta) and 450,265 tonnes of contained
lithium oxide ( Li (2) O ), grading at 85ppm Ta and 0.63% Li (2) O
respectively.
-- Major Li (2) O intersections include 86.51m grading at 1.22%
Li (2) O (drill hole V1V2017) and 109.32m with an average grade of
0.97% (drill hole V1V2010).
-- The Company is advancing a metallurgical test work programme
to investigate the by-product potential of the ancillary metals.
Test work for a Ta concentrate is at an advanced stage; Li (2) O
concentrate test work is progressing to a second stage.
Anthony Viljoen, CEO of AfriTin Mining Limited commented:
"Following the achievement of nameplate tin concentrate
production in November 2020, the Uis Tin Mine has exceeded
production forecasts. This provides the ideal platform for our
metallurgical test work programme to investigate the potential of
two major by-products, namely lithium oxide and tantalum.
Successful implementation of by-product streams may significantly
increase our profit margin and allow us to realise the goal of
positioning the company in the lowest quartile of the world tin
producer cost curve."
As set out in the announcement dated 16 September 2019, Uis has
a JORC(2012)-compliant measured, indicated and inferred mineral
resource estimate totalling 71.54 million tonnes of ore containing
95,539 tonnes of tin (Sn) metal at a grade of 0.134% tin. In
addition, the mineral resource estimate includes Tantalum (Ta) and
Lithium Oxide (Li-(2) O) as presented in Table 1.
Table 1 : AfriTin Mining inferred resource estimate (JORC-2012)
of ancillary metals within the Uis Tin Mine V1 and V2
pegmatites.
Gross Net Attribut Operator
able (85% * )
------------------- ------------------- ---------------
Ta (ppm) Li (2) Ta (ppm) Li (2)
Inferred Resource O (%) O (%)
--------- -------- --------- -------- ---------------
Grade 85 0.63 85 0.63 AfriTin Mining
--------- -------- --------- -------- ---------------
Tonnes (Mt) 71.54 71.54 60.81 60.81 AfriTin Mining
--------- -------- --------- -------- ---------------
Contained metal
(t) 6,091 450,265 5,177 382,725 AfriTin Mining
--------- -------- --------- -------- ---------------
Source: CSA Global
Note: Tabulated data have been rounded off. Contained metal for
lithium refers to lithium oxide (Li(2) O)
* AfriTin has an attributable ownership of 85% in Uis with the
remaining 15% owned by The Small Miners of Uis (SMU)
The presence of significant Tantalum and Lithium Oxide
mineralisation creates an opportunity for the development of
additional revenue streams. Therefore, the Company is advancing a
metallurgical test work programme aimed at developing the process
flow to efficiently produce Tantalum and Lithium Oxide
by-products.
Tantalum metallurgical investigations
Tantalum at Uis occurs in the form of the columbite group
minerals (CGM) which have a similar density to the Tin-bearing
mineral, cassiterite, and it is currently being recovered as part
of the Tin concentrate. At present, the Company does not receive
credits for the Tantalum present within the Tin concentrate.
Therefore, the aim is to extract the Tantalum bearing minerals from
the Tin concentrate into a separate saleable by-product.
Metallurgical test work for the production of a separate
Tantalum concentrate is at an advanced stage. Previous test work
focussed entirely on the differences in magnetic susceptibility
between CGM and cassiterite, since pure cassiterite is non-magnetic
whereas CGM are weakly magnetic. However, this test work found that
a portion of the cassiterite had a magnetic response similar to the
CGM. Further investigation found that inclusions, trace elements
and surface effects are the probable cause of this overlapping
magnetic response. Preliminary test work focused on roasting and
leaching the Company's concentrate to suppress the magnetic
response of cassiterite and this process has delivered encouraging
results. Further investigation and process flow development aims to
optimise a combination of leaching and roasting techniques to
improve the efficiency of magnetic separation and provide a
separate high value CGM by-product.
Lithium Metallurgical investigations
The primary Lithium Oxide-bearing mineral present in the orebody
at Uis has previously been identified through XRD analysis and thin
section investigation as petalite. The 2019 exploration drilling
campaign, which resulted in the mineral resource estimate of Table
1, yielded anomalous Lithium Oxide intersections that included
86.51m grading at 1.22% Li-(2) O (drill hole V1V2017) and 109.32m
grading at 0.97% Li-(2) O (drill hole V1V2010) (see announcement
dated 26 June 2019).
Test work for the production of a petalite concentrate
by-product has been initiated. Preliminary heavy liquid separation
(HLS) tests, utilising drill core samples, provided positive
indications that a saleable petalite concentrate can be produced.
The petalite is naturally low in deleterious compounds, in
particular iron oxide (Fe(2) O(3) ) and potassium oxide (K(2) O),
and may be suitable feedstock for the production of technical grade
lithium concentrate for the glass and ceramics industries. The
Company will also investigate the suitability of its petalite
concentrate for the production of battery-grade lithium products in
this work programme.
Petalite is the lowest density mineral present within the ore
mined at Uis, whereas, Tin and Tantalum-bearing minerals represent
more dense fractions. Investigations will focus on incorporating
technologies and methods currently employed at the processing
plant, including dense medium separation (DMS) and magnetic
separation. The petalite characterisation will incorporate HLS of
bulk samples taken from run-of-mine feed, followed by concentrate
cleaning through magnetic separation, and ultimately pilot-scale
processing runs.
Ore processing metallurgical investigations
An investigation into the pre-concentration potential of Tin,
Tantalum, and Lithium Oxide-bearing minerals using sensor-based ore
sorting has commenced. This process involves the use of X-ray, or
hyperspectral imaging technologies, to characterise ore particles
and manually or pneumatically sort them. The methodology is
suitable for ore streams of a relatively high top size (typically
20 to 80 mm) and has the potential to allow mineral concentration
or waste rejection early in the process, thereby increasing
downstream processing capacity and reducing processing costs.
Initial test work will investigate the potential applicability of
various X-ray imaging methods and sensors at Uis. Furthermore,
successful discrimination of minerals may be followed by bulk
material tests.
Further updates will be provided in due course.
Competent Person Statement :
The technical data in this announcement has been reviewed by
Laurence Robb, a Non-Executive Director of AfriTin. Laurence Robb
(BScHons, MSc, PhD, FGS, FGSSA, FRSSA) has more than 40 years of
industry-related mineral project development experience. He is
registered as a Professional Natural Scientist with The South
African Council for Natural Scientific Professions, Chartered
Geologist with the Geological Society of London, and European
Geologist with the European Federation of Geologists. He was
Professor of Economic Geology and Director of the Economic Geology
Research Institute in the University of the Witwatersrand's School
of Geosciences. He is currently based at Oxford University as a
Visiting Professor, and holds additional distinguished visiting
professorships at the University of Johannesburg and the University
of Witwatersrand. He consults widely throughout Africa and holds
various other corporate directorships. He has reviewed the
technical disclosures in this release and consents to the release
of the information contained herein.
Glossary of abbreviations
Fe(2) Iron oxide
O(3)
K(2) Potassium oxide
O
---------------------------------------------------
Li Elemental symbol for Lithium
---------------------------------------------------
Li (2) Lithium oxide
O
---------------------------------------------------
Li -> Conversion factor of 2.153
Li (2)
O
---------------------------------------------------
JORC The Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration
Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves
---------------------------------------------------
Mt Millions of tonnes
---------------------------------------------------
ppm Parts Per Million
---------------------------------------------------
Sn Elemental symbol for Tin
---------------------------------------------------
t Metric tonne
---------------------------------------------------
Ta Elemental symbol for Tantalum
---------------------------------------------------
Glossary of Technical Terms
Indicated Mineral The part of a Mineral Resource for which
Resource quantity, grade, quality, etc., can be
estimated with a level of confidence sufficient
to allow the appropriate application of
technical and economic parameters, to
support mine planning and evaluation of
economic viability
Inferred Mineral The part of a Mineral Resource for which
Resource quantity and grade or quality can be estimated
on the basis of geological evidence and
limited sampling and reasonably assumed,
but not verified, geological and grade
continuity
-------------------------------------------------
Measured Mineral The part of a Mineral Resource for which
Resource quantity, grade or quality, etc., are
well enough established that they can
be estimated with confidence sufficient
to allow the appropriate application of
technical parameters to support production
planning and evaluation of economic viability
-------------------------------------------------
Mineral Resources Mineral Resources are sub-divided, in
order of increasing geological confidence,
into Inferred, Indicated and Measured
categories. An Inferred Mineral Resource
has a lower level of confidence than that
applied to an Indicated Mineral Resource.
An Indicated Mineral Resource has a higher
level of confidence than an Inferred Mineral
Resource but has a lower level of confidence
than a Measured Mineral Resource
-------------------------------------------------
Pe talite A lithium aluminium phyllosilicate mineral
LiAlSi (4) O (10)
-------------------------------------------------
For further information, please visit www.afritinmining.com or
contact:
AfriTin Mining Limited
Anthony Viljoen, CEO +27 (11) 268 6555
Nominated Adviser
WH Ireland Limited
Katy Mitchell
James Sinclair-Ford +44 (0) 207 220 1666
Corporate Advisor and Joint Broker
Hannam & Partners
Andrew Chubb
Jay Ashfield
Nilesh Patel +44 (0) 20 7907 8500
Joint Broker
Turner Pope Investments
Andy Thacker
Zoe Alexander +44 (0) 203 657 0050
Financial PR (United Kingdom)
Tavistock +44 (0) 207 920 3150
Jos Simson
Emily Moss
Oliver Lamb
The information contained within this announcement is deemed by
the Company to constitute inside information under the Market Abuse
Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014
About AfriTin Mining Limited
Notes to Editors
AfriTin Mining Limited is the first pure tin company listed in
London and its vision is to create a portfolio of globally
significant, conflict-free, tin-producing assets. The Company's
flagship asset is the Uis Tin Mine in Namibia, formerly the world's
largest hard-rock opencast tin mine.
AfriTin is managed by an experienced board of directors and
management team with a current two-fold strategy: fast-track Uis
Tin Mine in Namibia to commercial production as Phase 1, and ramp
up to 5,000 tonnes of concentrate per annum in a Phase 2 expansion.
The Company strives to capitalise on the solid supply/demand
fundamentals of tin by developing a critical mass of tin resource
inventory, achieving production in the near term and further
scaling production by consolidating tin assets in Africa.
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