Taronga Exploration Update

First Tin PLC

29 May 2024

 

29 May 2024

First Tin Plc

("First Tin" or "the Company")

Taronga Exploration Update

Taronga Mines Pty Ltd has consolidated its tenement holdings in the Taronga district by acquiring an additional licence, EL 9200, and has confirmed and extended the tin in soil anomaly at nearby Pound Flat

First Tin PLC, a tin development company with advanced, low capex projects in Germany and Australia, is pleased to announce that its 100% owned Australian subsidiary, Taronga Mines Pty Ltd ("TMPL") has acquired an additional Exploration Licence (EL 9200) that consolidates its landholdings in the Taronga district, and has extended and closed off the soil anomaly at nearby Pound Flat.

The region around Taronga is well mineralised with tin and has historically produced over 83,000t tin in concentrate between 1872 and 1984. The Taronga deposit has a measured, indicated and inferred resource base of 138,000t tin, reported in accordance with the 2012 JORC Code and Guidelines, as previously announced (14 September 2024). Mineralisation is believed to be related to the late stages of emplacement of the Mole Leucogranite, a large, complex, multiple granite intrusion located north of Emmaville in northeast New South Wales (Figure 1).

Many old tin workings, both primary, eluvial/alluvial and palaeo-alluvial (deep lead[1]) are known in the district and several zones of sheeted tin greisen veins, similar to the Taronga tin deposit, have been located by previous workers.  These are shown in Figure 1.

EL 9200

The new licence, EL9200, covers the majority of the known deep lead deposits in the district as shown in Figure 1. These have been the source of around half the tin historically mined in the district and represent an attractive target to supplement tin production from the Taronga hard rock deposit, for which positive results of a feasibility study have recently been announced (2 May 2024). The grades in the deep leads can be significant, with historical reports of 1.5 hundredweight of cassiterite per cubic yard (approximately 3% Sn).  For comparison, average grades mined in alluvial operations are around 0.02% to 0.10% Sn.

As well as the deep leads, potential exists for extensions of the Tin Beetle and Pound Flat mineralisation into the new licence area as shown on Figure 1.

Pound Flat

Soil sampling at Pound Flat has now been completed.  This has confirmed that a good tin in soil anomaly occurs there, with a similar intensity to that seen at Taronga, over a strike length of around 1.8km. A compilation of previous work, mainly by Newmont and Billiton, shows that the anomaly is coincident with previously identified mineralisation (Figure 2), and appears to accurately define the two main zones identified by those companies. Notably, some of the better parts of the soil anomaly have no previous drilling.

The compilation shows mineralisation very similar to that found at Taronga that comes to surface.  Better near surface results include:

·      41.5m @ 0.15% Sn from 13.5m (top 13.5m not assayed)

·      49m @ 0.18% Sn from 1m

·      49m @ 0.13% Sn from 1m

·      27m @ 0.15% Sn from 1m

·      16m @ 0.14% Sn from 0m

The mineralisation is now interpreted as a series of en-echelon NE trending dilation zones in an overall ENE trending shear system. This new interpretation opens up the project for additional drill testing in areas with previously untested high tin in soil values. 

Follow-up is currently being planned, in particular on the alluvial/eluvial and weathered part of the deposit which could potentially be extracted and upgraded via jigs for transport to the Taronga processing facility without any significant crushing being required. A simple portable crushing plant could allow extraction of deeper and/or less weathered mineralisation.

First Tin CEO, Bill Scotting commented:

"The acquisition of EL 9200 provides First Tin with access to the deep leads, a major part of the previous production profile in the Emmaville district. Historically the grade mined was very high and therefore could form a target for high grade supplementary feed for any processing plant established at Taronga, approximately 7km away by existing roads.

The final soil sampling results for Pound Flat appear to have extended the target slightly and to have now closed off the anomaly.  The close agreement between known mineralisation and the soil anomaly once again shows the importance of soil sampling as a regional exploration tool. 

We consider Pound Flat a high priority target for future follow-up work."

Details

Enquiries:

First Tin	Via SEC Newgate below
Bill Scotting - Chief Executive Officer
Arlington Group Asset Management Limited (Financial Advisor and Joint Broker)
Simon Catt	020 7389 5016
WH Ireland Limited (Joint Broker)
Harry Ansell	020 7220 1670
SEC Newgate (Financial Communications)
Elisabeth Cowell / Molly Gretton	[e-mail]

Notes to Editors

First Tin is an ethical, reliable, and sustainable tin production company led by a team of renowned tin specialists. The Company is focused on becoming a tin supplier in conflict-free, low political risk jurisdictions through the rapid development of high value, low capex tin assets in Germany and Australia, which have been de-risked significantly, with extensive work undertaken to date.

First Tin has a resource base of 309,700t tin reported in accordance with the 2012 JORC Code and Guidelines.

Tin is a critical metal, vital in any plan to decarbonise and electrify the world, yet Europe has very little supply. Rising demand, together with shortages, is expected to lead tin to experience sustained deficit markets for the foreseeable future.

First Tin's goal is to use best-in-class environmental standards to bring two tin mines into production in three years, providing provenance of supply to support the current global clean energy and technological revolutions.

Figure 1: Location and Key Features of EL 9200, Emmaville District, Northeast NSW

Figure 2: Pound Flat Soil Sampling Results and Previous Work Compilation

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[1] Alluvial deposit buried below a considerable thickness of soil or rock.

 

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