Australian tin exploration company Elementos (ASX:ELT) has started an 8-hole 1,000m drilling program targeting additional mineralisation outside the 2021 Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) at the Oropesa Tin Project in Spain.
The new drilling program is targeting the northwest and southeast ends of the deposit. The company reports the drilling program’s design was based on the results from a 10-hole infill and geotechnical drill program completed in 2022.
Elementos reports it is still waiting for a batch of assays to finalise an update to the 2021 MRE, which will also support a Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) for Oropesa.
Commenting on the drilling program, Elementos Managing Director Joe David says the continuation of exploration at Oropesa is an exciting time for the company amid DFS development and a surge in tin price.
“We are advancing rapidly towards completing the DFS and increasing the confidence of the Mineral Resource Estimate. However, Oropesa remains prospective for additional mineralisation so it’s quite exciting to kick off this exploration drilling program which will test extensions to our current mineral resource.
“We are advancing rapidly towards completing the DFS and increasing the confidence of the Mineral Resource Estimate”
Additional mineralisation, if intersected, should give our shareholders extra confidence that Oropesa’s mineral resource is yet to be fully defined and the possibility that additional mineralisation and therefore mine life may exist outside the known mineralisation.
Exploration is underway during a time when the tin price is surging, based on what appears to be a return to fundamental supply-demand analysis which shows a significant deficit in the tin market from 2024/2025 onwards.”
Elementos reports 5 shallow diamond drillholes will target potential up-dip, and shallower mineralisation towards the southeast margin of the mineral resource. Meanwhile, 3 diamond drillholes will target potential extensions to ‘significant’ tin and zinc mineralisation intersected in geotechnical drillhole SGT-04 in 2022, which is located northwest of the current mineral resource boundary.
The company also reports tin prices on the London Metals Exchange (LME), and the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) have surged 65% and 56% respectively since November 2022.
Elementos attributes this surge in price to several factors including tin being recognised further by global economies, low stockpiles, the re-opening of Chinese manufacturing following COVID lockdowns, and the slowdown of global inflation.
It also notes the likely restrictions on tin exports in Indonesia (about 18% to 20% of global supply), and recent political instability in Peru (about 12% global supply) are increasing demand.
Elementos is a pure tin exploration and development company that holds the Oropesa project in Spain, and the Cleveland Tin Project in Tasmania.
Oropesa covers an area of 14.51km-square about 75km northwest of Cordoba in the Andalucia region of Spain. In November 2021, the company announced the project contains a measured, indicated, and inferred MRE of 75,400 tonnes of tin.
The Cleveland project is located 80km southwest of Burnie in Tasmania, and as of 2018, boasts a MRE of 1.89 million tonnes @ 0.34% tin (Sn).
Images: Elementos Ltd
