Venture Minerals has commissioned a feasibility study for an underground tin mine within its Mount Lindsay tin-tungsten resource near the high-grade Renison tin mine in northern Tasmania. The Australian government has declared tin a critical resource as global competition for the battery metal heats up. Tin prices soared to record highs recently, touching US$37,500 a tonne, up 180 per cent since 2016.
Mount Lindsay contains one of the largest undeveloped tin resources in the world today with 80,000 tonnes of tin metal and 3,200,000 metric tonne units of tungsten trioxide. Notably, 70 per cent of Venture’s resource now sits in the higher confidence “measured and indicated” categories.
Having completed 83,000 metres of diamond core drilling at the project to-date, the underground feasibility study will advance previous scoping study work and guide future drilling to confirm the continuity of high-grade shoots at the MacDonald and Main Skarn as well as at the Radford Shoot in Number 2 Skarn.
MacDonald has previously thrown up some solid drill numbers too including 18m at 2.2 per cent tin from 160m. A 2m intersection within that hole graded as high as 14 per cent tin from 172m.
Another 26m intersection came in at 2.7 per cent tin from 202m and included 2m at a serious 17per cent tin from 210m.
Venture Minerals’ Managing Director Andrew Radonjic said: “The Board looks forward to further advancing the Company’s flagship asset in a pro-EV Metal/Critical Minerals development environment, supported by global markets searching for ESG compliant strategic resources such as Mount Lindsay.”
“Quality tin deposits are rare, and Venture is fortunate to have already defined a globally significant project, giving the Company a substantial resource base to underpin any future development. Mount Lindsay has excellent potential for resource growth through exploration, with the current deposits part of a major tin field that already hosts the world class, high grade, Renison Tin Mine.”
At current market prices, tin is now worth more than four times the value of copper which itself is in high demand.
Interestingly, Venture says there is only a paltry one-days worth of global supply of tin held in stockpiles by the London Metal Exchange. Tin is an electric vehicle metal that is critical in the production of modern lithium-ion. Whilst tin is listed as a “critical mineral” by many countries in the world such as China, USA and Australia, it remains on the brink of criticality in Europe and the UK where it has a lower supply risk.
Australia has specifically listed the Mount Lindsay Project as a “critical minerals project” which augers well for Venture.
The top five compliant tin resources of the world are in Russia with 29 per cent, Australia, 15 per cent, Peru at 9 per cent, the Democratic Republic of Congo, 9 per cent and Brazil at 8 per cent. Non-compliant resources are dominated by China with 38 per cent of reported non-compliant resources.
Venture Minerals looks to be setting itself up as a significant player in the growing EV metals market with a critical mineral of its own that is perhaps not quite as abundant as some of the headline EV minerals such as lithium and nickel.
Whilst the market becomes feverish about lithium, Venture is carving itself out a niche with tine that will ultimately ride on the back of lithium’s success – and it seems that venture has plenty of it too.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
