14
January 2025
First Tin
PLC
("First
Tin" or "the Company")
Taronga Mines Exploration
Strategy Update
First Tin PLC, a tin development
company with advanced, low capex projects in Germany and Australia,
is pleased to announce that its 100% owned subsidiary, Taronga
Mines Pty Ltd ("TMPL"), has completed a review of exploration
potential within its large tenement holdings around its Taronga Tin
Project ("Taronga") in Australia.
The review has highlighted the
excellent project pipeline available to the Company in the Taronga
district and confirmed the possibility of a hub-and-spoke concept
with the proposed Taronga processing facility being the hub of a
district scale mining centre.
First Tin CEO, Bill Scotting
commented:
"While bringing our Taronga project
into production remains our highest priority over the short term,
the recent exploration review has shown a large pipeline of nearby
projects within this exceptional tin district that we intend to
progress in parallel, to sustainably meet the forecast medium-term
growth in tin demand. The likelihood of being able to utilise the
proposed processing facility at Taronga as a central processing
facility or "hub" for processing moderate to high grade
mineralisation either trucked directly or as a pre-concentrate,
using a mobile crushing and jigging facility, has been
significantly enhanced based on the results of this
review."
The following target matrix has been
compiled by the TMPL technical team:
|
Resource Drilling
|
Exploration Drilling
|
Soil / Rock Anomaly
|
Stream Anomaly
|
Conceptual Target
|
Priority 1
|
Taronga Near Pit
Pound Flat
Great Britain / Tin
Beetle
|
|
Taronga SW
|
|
|
Priority 2
|
|
McDonalds
Rossmoine
|
Taronga NE
Taronga South
Wells South
Gap Ridge South
Battery Mtn
Stannum
Bens Falls
|
|
Binghi (Long Spur)
Tingha
|
Priority 3
|
|
Griffiths Lode
Says Lode
McMasters / Tent Hill
|
Taronga Far SW
Wells Far South
Beardy Cliffs
Tip Mtn / Kathida
|
Beardy Gorge
Back Ck
Catarrh Ck
|
Westminster Mtn
Western Colluvials
Dutchmans etc
|
Priority 4
|
Butlers
|
Emmaville West
|
Arvid
Leave Me
Emerald
Poverty Point
Poverty East
Tin Beetle NW
|
Ford Hill
Deep Leads
|
Tin Beetle North
Duck Ck
|
Priority 5
|
|
Wells Lode
Big Plant Ck
|
Wells Extended
Wangalea
Hell Hole Ck
Rummerys Hill
|
Taronga NW
|
Romneys
|
This matrix was compiled by
undertaking a detailed examination of all previous exploration data
and then ranking the targets based on prospectivity, stage of
exploration and accessibility. This clearly shows a large pipeline
of targets ranging from geological conceptual targets through to
exploration target / resource drilling.
All of these targets are within 30km
of the proposed Taronga processing facility, with the majority
within 15km (Figure 1).
A summary of the Priority 1 and more
advanced Priority 2 targets is provided below:
Taronga Near
Pit
These targets are immediately
adjacent to known mineralisation and will be drill tested during
2025 with the aim of increasing the Taronga resource base.
Details were provided in a previous RNS dated 17th
December 2024.
Pound Flat
Some drilling was undertaken during
the late 1970s and early 1980s by Newmont and Billiton. Intercepts
very similar to those seen at Taronga itself include:
· 109.5m
@ 0.13% Sn from 13.5m incl. 41.5m @ 0.15% Sn from 13.5m
· 50m @
0.18% Sn from surface
· 50m @
0.13% Sn from surface
Recent work by TMPL has been
restricted to soil sampling and this shows that there are several
areas untested by the previous drilling.
This is a walk-up drill target with
excellent potential for satellite feed at a similar grade to
Taronga. It is envisaged that mineralisation could be
pre-concentrated on site via a portable crushing and jigging plant,
with upgraded mineralisation trucked to Taronga for gravity
processing.
Great Britain / Tin
Beetle
This area was the centre of previous
mining activity in the Emmaville district, with over 20,000t of
historical production of tin concentrates. Mining originally
focussed on alluvial and palaeo-alluvial (deep lead) deposits and
subsequently progressed to eluvial and weathered bedrock
deposits.
Previous broad spaced drilling by
Base Minerals, Loloma, EZ and Anglo American during the 1970s and
1980s identified several greater than 200m long zones with plus
0.1% Sn mineralisation. Better intercepts
included:
· 47.5m
@ 0.38% Sn from surface
· 15.2m
@ 0.15% Sn from surface
· 74m @
0.10% Sn from surface incl. 38m @ 0.13% Sn from 1m
· 49m @
0.12% Sn from surface
TMPL also drilled several broad
spaced holes during 2023, designed to confirm the concept of
Taronga style mineralisation being present. This returned
intercepts of:
· 48m @
0.18% Sn from 2m
· 30m @
0.10% Sn from surface
· 12m @
0.13% Sn from 48m
· 14m @
0.12% Sn from 77m
Potential can be seen for at least
four separate zones of mineralisation that could become satellite
deposits to Taronga using a similar concept to that noted at Pound
Flat.
McDonalds
This area was mined for both
alluvial, eluvial and hard-rock tin in the past but production
records are sketchy.
The area is defined by high order
stream sediment anomalies (590ppm Sn to 1350ppm Sn), significant
tin in soil anomalies (two plus 1000ppm Sn zones over 700m and 800m
strike length) and associated geophysical (IP) anomalies.
Limited broad spaced drilling has returned significant
mineralisation including:
· 14m @
0.39% Sn from 47m incl. 4m @ 0.64% Sn from 47m (still mineralised
at the end of the hole)
· 22m @
0.10% Sn from 22m incl. 5m @ 0.18% Sn from 22m
· 22m @
0.19% Sn from surface incl. 5m @ 0.58% Sn from 11m
· 1m @
0.86% Sn from 52m
This drilling has not tested the
best combined soil and IP anomalies, and potential for moderate to
high grade mineralisation that may be directly trucked to Taronga
can be seen.
Rossmoine
This area includes the historical
Taylors and Dalcoath lodes and a very large area of previous
alluvial tin mining. Production records are sketchy but the
large area of worked alluvium suggests considerable
production.
This is an interesting area as it is
centred on a granitic dyke that has been extensively and
intensively altered to greisen, a common host for tin
mineralisation.
No significant modern exploration
has been undertaken apart from a small open hole percussion
drilling programme under the main lodes by AOG in the late 1960s
that returned the following intercepts:
· 9.1m @
0.28% Sn from 3m
· 13.7m
@ 0.35% Sn from 10m
· 4.6m @
0.40% Sn from 6m
· 4.6m @
1.74% WO3 from 24m (note this is high grade tungsten
mineralisation)
Large areas with sheeted
quartz-greisen veins with visible cassiterite have been mapped and
these have not had any systematic exploration at all.
This is a high priority target with
potential for moderate grade tin mineralisation that may be
amenable to trucking to Taronga, either directly or via a mobile
crushing and jigging circuit as conceptually noted at the above
targets.
Taronga SW & Taronga Far
SW
The southwestern trend of the
Taronga mineralisation has highly anomalous stream sediment samples
(up to 2010ppm Sn) and some tin in soil anomalism (>1,000ppm Sn)
in the few areas where this method has been utilised.
This trend can be traced over a
total strike length of around 3.8km.
It is proposed to cover the trend
with systematic soil sampling to define future drill
targets.
Other
Targets
Numerous other targets exist as
shown in the target matrix, but many of these have only had
perfunctory exploration to date.
Ongoing work by TMPL will consist of
geological mapping and data compilation, systematic soil sampling
and possibly geophysical surveying followed by drilling as
required.
Figure 1: Taronga District Regional
Targets