REG - First Tin PLC - Crushing Testwork Update

First TinAnnouncement

20/02/2025 07:15

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RNS Number : 7715X  First Tin PLC  20 February 2025

 

 

20 February 2025

First Tin PLC

("First Tin" or "the Company")

Crushing Testwork Update

 

First Tin PLC, a tin development company with advanced, low capex projects in
Germany and Australia, is pleased to announce that its 100% owned subsidiary,
Taronga Mines Pty Ltd ("TMPL"), has received results of additional crushing
testwork for its Taronga Tin Project ("Taronga") in Australia.

The testwork has shown that it is possible to obtain up to 89.5% of the
contained tin into the minus 2.8mm fraction after coarse crushing, with an
average of 87.1% across seven samples. These results are consistent with
previous findings reported on 25(th) April 2024 and confirm that the project
does not require the higher capital and operating cost of ore-sorting
equipment to pre-concentrate the tin.

 

Coarse gravity testwork is ongoing for these latest samples and will be
reported when results are available.

 

 

First Tin CEO, Bill Scotting commented:

 

"The Taronga project's unique mineralisation with the coarse cassiterite
grains residing in sub-vertical quartz veins allows the liberation of much of
the tin into the minus 2.8mm fraction after simple crushing to a relatively
coarse size.

 

This new crushing testwork confirms that up to 90% of the tin (average 87%) is
liberated into the minus 2.8mm fraction after crushing to 12mm and then
passing the crushed material through a series of Vertical Shaft Impact (VSI)
crushers to simply knock the exposed cassiterite off the host rock. As a
result, a large proportion of the very siliceous and abrasive hornfels host
rock does not need further crushing or grinding, with between 30% and 50% of
the material being rejected at a very early stage, with a concomitant increase
in the grade of material going on to further processing.

 

Unlike other tin projects, that may  incur the costs of ore-sorting
technology to achieve similar results, Taronga's ability to achieve this
through simple crushing reduces both capital and operating costs, reinforcing
our commitment to delivering low capex projects.

 

The consistency of these crushing results with earlier work enhances our
confidence in the overall final recovery for the project, positioning Taronga
as a highly cost effective and technically robust project within the tin
market."

 

 

Details:

 

Seven samples of material from Taronga were collected - four from the old
Newmont adit (HG3 to HG6) and three from the recent trial blast area (TB03,
TB05 and TB08).

 

Head grades varied from 0.12% tin to 0.22% tin with no relationship between
head grade and recovery being observed. This is important as it shows that
crushing should return similar recoveries at all grades within this range.

 

Samples were crushed to 100% passing 12mm with a p80 (80% passing or finer
than) of 10mm by conventional crushing at ALS Laboratories in Burnie,
Tasmania.  This material was subsequently sieved at 2.8mm, with the oversize
sent to Gekko Systems in Ballarat for VSI testwork designed to liberate the
remaining cassiterite (main tin mineral, SnO(2)) that has been exposed on
joint surfaces but not liberated from the host rock.

 

At Gekko Systems, the oversize was put through a single pass VSI and then
sieved at 2.8mm, with the oversize put through a VSI for a second time.  The
plus 2.8mm oversize from this was subsequently put through a VSI for a third
time and again sieved at 2.8mm.

 

The undersize (minus 2.8mm) fraction from each test was assayed, along with
the remaining oversize after the third pass VSI, and this has enabled the tin
recovery to be ascertained as per the following table:

 

 Crushing Testwork 2025              Cumulative % Tin Recovered
 Sample                  Head Grade  Conv. Crush  1st Pass VSI  2nd Pass VSI  3rd Pass VSI

                         % Sn
 HG3                     0.20        50.2         74.3          83.2          88.5
 HG4                     0.20        56.0         75.3          83.5          88.4
 HG5                     0.22        55.4         76.7          84.2          88.0
 HG6                     0.20        58.8         68.7          77.4          82.4
 TB03                    0.12        45.7         66.8          81.5          87.2
 TB05                    0.14        52.9         72.0          80.0          85.9
 TB08                    0.12        55.6         75.0          83.8          89.5

 Average                 0.17        53.5         72.7          81.9          87.1

Table 1:  Cumulative tin recovery after conventional crushing followed by
three passes through a VSI

 

This is shown graphically on the following figures:

 

Figure 1: Cumulative tin recovery by sample

 

Figure 2: Cumulative tin recovery by crushing stage

 

It can be seen that the samples all behave in a similar manner, with around
54% of the tin being recovered to the minus 2.8mm fraction after a
conventional crush to 12mm, 73% cumulative tin recovery to the minus 2.8mm
fraction after a single pass through the VSI, 82% cumulative recovery after a
second pass through the VSI and 87% cumulative recovery after a third pass
through the VSI.

 

Some variations are apparent after the initial crush stage, but the variations
tend to even out as the material is further processed.

 

Further crushing testwork is currently being prepared looking at longer
residence time in a single VSI with various closing screens. This may enable
similar results with a simpler circuit.

 

Further crushing testwork is also being prepared looking at replacing part of
the crushing circuit with High Pressure Grinding Rollers (HPGRs) which may do
the same job as the VSI and could also simplify the crushing circuit.

 

The fine fractions from the seven samples will now be re-combined and put
through a gravity circuit as per the DFS design, to obtain final recovery data
from a combination of crushing and coarse gravity testwork.

 

Results of this additional testwork will be reported as results come to
hand.

Enquiries:

 

                                                                                Via SEC Newgate below
 Bill Scotting - Chief Executive Officer
 Arlington Group Asset Management Limited (Financial Advisor and Joint Broker)
 Simon Catt                                                                     020 7389 5016

 Zeus Capital Limited (Joint Broker)
 Harry Ansell / Dan Bristowe / Katy Mitchell                                    020 3829 5000

 SEC Newgate (Financial Communications)
 Elisabeth Cowell / Molly Gretton                                               07900 248 213

 

Notes to Editors

First Tin PLC 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 and North America have 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.

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