Venture Minerals’ Tasmanian tin pursuit looks to be heating up with drilling at its Mount Lindsay Tin-Tungsten project intersecting 93 metres of mineralisation in its opening hole of a freshly launched campaign. The intersection included a high-grade zone of 12m grading 1.7 per cent tin equivalent from 107m. The company says its recent work is aimed at confirming the continuity of high grade zones and shoring up its metallurgical samples enroute to an updated feasibility study for an underground mine.
Other notable results from the inaugural hole included 30m going 0.5 per cent tin equivalent from 170m and 22m grading 0.6 per cent tin equivalent from 236m. Some of the longer intersections included 54m going 0.6 per cent tin equivalent from 113m.
The recently plunged hole was sunk into the company’s main tin magnetite skarn at Mount Lindsay and the company is continuing to pepper the zone's high-grade Macdonald shoot as it continues its pursuit of high-grade tin. Venture intends on running a similar play at a second skarn nearby, targeting its high grade Radford shoot.
According to Venture, the recent samples will now be submitted to its preferred laboratory to provide assays for missing elements.
Venture Minerals’ Managing Director, Andrew Radonjic, said:“The first hole of the new drilling program at Mount Lindsay, for the recently started underground Feasibility Study, has seen the MacDonald Shoot deliver further High Grade Tin and Tungsten assay results to confirm the continuity of this High Grade Zone. Additional drilling on the Main Skarn’s High Grade MacDonald Shoot, followed by similar targeted drilling on the No. 2 Skarn’s High Grade Radford Shoot, is expected to return more High Grade results which will increase the confidence in the resource supporting an underground development.”
“The MacDonald and Radford Shoots provide a great foundation for the first stage development for the Mount Lindsay Tin-Tungsten Project whilst exploration will look to extend the life of the asset to a multi-decade opportunity, in keeping with other major mines on the West Coast of Tasmania.”
Venture’s Mount Lindsay ground occupies some 148 square kilometres in Tasmania’s north-west and is considered to host one of the world’s largest undeveloped tin projects. Recent estimates at the project point to an approximate 81,000 tonnes of contained tin and tungsten resource of approximately 3.2 million metric tonne units of tungsten trioxide.
Interestingly, Mount Lindsay looks to be sitting on prime real estate with the globally renowned Renison Bell tin mine a mere 30 kilometres away.
Renison is one of the world’s largest and highest-grade tin mines and has produced more than 230,000 tonnes of the metal. Recent figures from Renison point to an 18.55 million tonne resource at 1.57 per cent tin for 291,600 tonnes of contained metal.
Tin prices have been on a tear for the past two years driven largely by the minerals’ increased use in the exploding electric vehicle industry in addition to it forming a key ingredient in the manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries.
According to the International Tin Association demand for the mineral could reach around 60,000 tonnes per annum by 2030 off the back of its increased use in the white hot lithium-ion battery market.
The price of tin is fetching near record highs of around US$38,000 per tonne, having more than doubled from under US$15,000 per tonne in March last year. With the mineral forming a critical piece of the electric vehicle revolution, all eyes will be on Venture as it looks to tease out more tin hits at its Mount Lindsay project.
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By Matt Birney
