Taronga Gravity Circuit Mineral Processing Update

First Tin PLC

07 March 2024

 

7 March 2024

First Tin Plc

("First Tin" or "the Company")

Taronga Gravity Circuit Mineral Processing Update

Results of New Gravity Circuit Testwork at ALS Laboratory Return Excellent Recoveries, Significantly Improving on Previous Testwork

First Tin PLC, a tin development company with advanced, low capex projects in Germany and Australia, is pleased to announce that additional mineral processing testwork for its Definitive Feasibility Study ("DFS") at its Taronga Tin Project ("Taronga") in Australia, has shown enhanced recoveries from the gravity circuit of the project.

ALS Laboratory in Burnie, Tasmania, one of the foremost laboratories for tin processing testwork worldwide, recently completed testwork on crushing preconcentrates of two samples from the Taronga project:

1.   A "low grade" bulk sample, blasted from the old Newmont adit in the North zone, with a head grade of 0.11% Sn.

2.   A composite "variability" sample of half core from throughout the deposit (both North and South zones), constructed to be close to the average composition and average head grade of the deposit, around 0.13% Sn.

Results highlights:

·    Gravity circuit testwork on both the low grade bulk sample and the variability core sample crushing pre-concentrates has returned:

o  Low grade (0.11% Sn):  71.5% tin recovery to a 69.8% Sn concentrate

o  Variability (0.13% Sn):   72.5% tin recovery to a 60.1% Sn concentrate

·   These results are significant improvements on the previous recoveries for the high grade bulk sample (0.18% Sn), due to optimising the flowsheet based on the earlier work.

·     The results confirm that mineralisation with head grades at or below the average head grade of 0.13% Sn, return plus 70% recovery to the coarse tin gravity circuit.

·   Inclusion of a fine tin circuit will be examined later and this should increase the overall recovery even further.

·    Total recovery, including losses from the crushing pre-concentration, will be reported in the next few weeks.

Based on learning from the previous testwork on the "high grade" sample, the recent ALS testwork more closely followed the revised processing flowsheet, include size classification before the spiral circuit.

Results were excellent, with recoveries through the gravity circuit of 71.5% tin to a 69.8% Sn concentrate for the low grade sample and 72.5% tin to a 60.1% concentrate for the variability sample. 

These are both significant improvements on the previous high grade sample results, which returned a gravity circuit recovery of 66.4% tin to a 56.2% Sn concentrate.  The new recoveries are close to those obtained by previous work conducted by Newmont and Aus Tin.

Additional work is being conducted on dressing of the variability sample concentrate, with the aim of increasing concentrate grade.

Both samples had previously been upgraded by crushing and screening at 2.8mm and thus overall recovery will be proportionately lower. End to end results including the crushing will be reported in the next few weeks.

It should be noted that the low grade sample has a lower head grade (0.11% Sn) than the average mined grade (0.13% Sn) and the variability sample has a head grade of 0.13% Sn, close to the average for the deposit.  Hence assumptions drawn from this work may be conservative.

First Tin CEO, Bill Scotting commented: "This work builds on and improves the previous mineral processing testwork on the initial bulk sample. Optimisations by our team in Australia and the ALS Laboratory have successfully shown the deposit has a recovery of over 70% through the gravity circuit, confirming the previous Newmont testwork. The work also shows that gravity circuit recoveries for mineralisation that grades below the average grade being mined, remain above 70%, thus alleviating concerns that the previous testwork was only conducted on samples with above average head grade.  Results for the full circuit, including crushing, will be reported in the next few weeks, and results of that are eagerly awaited."

The project is owned by First Tin's 100% owned Australian subsidiary, Taronga Mines Pty Ltd ("TMPL").

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.

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.

 

END