REG - First Tin PLC - Taronga Regional Exploration Update

First TinAnnouncement

19/03/2024 07:00

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RNS Number : 3050H  First Tin PLC  19 March 2024

 

19 March 2024

First Tin Plc

("First Tin" or "the Company")

Taronga Regional Exploration Update

 

Regional Exploration has Confirmed Excellent Upside Potential at Pound Flat
and Battery Hill Prospects, Increasing Confidence in a Hub and Spoke Concept
for the Taronga District

 

 

First Tin PLC, a tin development company with advanced, low capex projects in
Germany and Australia, is pleased to announce that regional exploration
conducted in parallel with the Definitive Feasibility Study ("DFS") at its
Taronga Tin Project ("Taronga") in Australia, has shown excellent potential
for satellite deposits in the Company's large tenement holdings in the
district.

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

The region is well mineralised with tin and has historically produced over
83,000t tin in concentrate between 1872 and 1984. 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 and eluvial/alluvial 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.

 

TMPL has focussed most of its effort to date on the Taronga deposit itself,
and has recently conducted soil sampling over the deposit designed to:

 

1.   Obtain a reference for comparison with other mineralisation in the
region.

2.   Ensure no mineralisation occurs in areas of planned infrastructure,
including waste rock emplacements and tailings co-disposal areas.

3.   Identify any nearby targets that may be potential satellite feed for
the Taronga tin processing facility.

Following this, TMPL compiled results of soil sampling conducted by previous
explorers, conducted its own soil sampling over the Pound Flat prospect, and
conducted rock chip sampling over the Battery Hill prospect.

 

Results highlights:

 

·      Soil sampling at Pound Flat has confirmed that a good tin in soil
anomaly occurs there, with a similar intensity to that seen at Taronga.

·      Compilation of previous sampling at McDonalds has shown a soil
anomaly of similar intensity to that seen at Taronga occurs over this
prospect.

·      Rock chip sampling at Stannum has returned numerous plus 1% Sn
assays over an area of over 2,000m by 800m at the Battery Hill prospect, with
a best assay of 9.85% Sn.

 

TMPL has previously announced results of drilling at the Tin Beetle prospect,
approximately 8.5km southeast of Taronga (Figure 1), with a best intercept of
48m @ 0.18% Sn from 2m including 21m @ 0.32% Sn from 2m.  This is similar to
intercepts obtained from the Taronga deposit and hence Tin Beetle is a high
priority target for further exploration and definition work.

 

First Tin CEO, Bill Scotting commented:

 

"While most of our effort during the past two years has been directed toward
completing the Feasibility Study on our Taronga deposit, the First Tin team in
Australia have also been progressing some of the nearby regional targets to
make the proposed Taronga Tin Processing Facility a hub for several potential
satellite deposits.  This may enable both increased tin production and extend
mine life beyond the life of the Taronga deposit itself.

 

There are many possible targets in the vicinity, and TMPL has focussed to date
only on known zones of sheeted tin-greisen veins similar to those found at the
Taronga deposit, building on our unique knowledge base and lessons learned
from work on that deposit.

 

The four main targets mentioned above are the most advanced and are all at the
target definition or drill testing/resource definition stage. The potential
for a hub and spoke concept has been significantly upgraded by this work
stream.

 

We look forward to presenting additional exploration results as we progress
these and other targets in the district over the coming months and years."

 

Details

 

Three new targets have now been identified as discussed below:

 

Pound Flat

 

This target is located approximately 15km south of Taronga (Figure 1).  Work
by TMPL has consisted of compiling and assessing all previous exploration data
as well as undertaking the current programme of detailed soil sampling.  The
soil sampling has defined a soil anomaly that is 1,800m long by 270m wide at
plus 500ppm Sn, and still open to the northeast (Figure 2).  This compares
well with the Taronga tin in soil anomaly, which is 3,300m long by 250m wide
at plus 500ppm Sn.

 

The area has previously been partially drill tested in the early 1980s, with
better results including 98.5m @ 0.13% Sn from 13.5m, 37m @ 0.13% Sn from 65m
and 49m @ 0.13% Sn from 1m.  These results are similar to the drilling
results seen at Taronga.

 

Extension and infill soils are currently being collected to better define the
target zone prior to drill testing.

 

Battery Hill (Stannum)

 

The Stannum area is located approximately 23km northeast of Taronga and is
within the Mole Leucogranite itself (Figures 1 and 3).  The area has been
mined historically for alluvial, deep lead and hard rock tin in narrow high
grade veins.

 

The intensity of tin lodes and veins in the Battery Hill area is higher than
is generally seen in the Mole Leucogranite and it was decided to conduct a
programme of mapping and rock chip sampling to test the frequency and tin
content of these veins.

 

The sampling has shown that moderate to high grade tin in rocks occurs over an
area of at least 2,000m by 800m, with highest assays being 1.71% Sn, 2.47% Sn,
6.27% Sn, 1.88% Sn and 9.85% Sn.  These are very high values and confirm the
presence of multiple narrow, high grade tin veins.  Based on this, the
potential for a zone of sheeted tin-greisen veining can be seen and a
programme of soil sampling is proposed as initial follow-up.

 

McDonalds

 

The McDonalds prospect is located approximately 5km north-northeast of the
Taronga deposit.  Compilation of previous explorers' data has shown that tin
mineralisation at the McDonalds prospect is located on the Mole Leucogranite
contact and may be an extension of the historically mined Butlers Mine, which
occurs along strike approximately 3,500m to the northeast, within the granite
itself.  This was a very high grade mine and is reported to have produced
21,000t tin ore grading over 1.5% Sn.

 

Soil sampling by EZ in the early 1980s identified two parallel zones of tin in
soil anomalism: the main zone is 2,000m long by 200m wide at plus 500ppm Sn,
comparable with, but shorter than, the Taronga anomaly.  The second zone
occurs around 200m to the north and is 1,200m long by 100m wide at plus 500ppm
Sn (Figure 4).

 

Aus Tin conducted a limited drilling programme in 2014 which returned
intercepts of 14m @ 0.52% Sn from 47m, 22m @ 0.19% Sn from 0m and 5m @ 0.18%
Sn from 11m. These drillholes are not considered to have been optimally
located and significant potential can be seen for potentially higher grade
mineralisation than at Taronga.

 

Additional sampling and mapping are planned before any further drill
follow-up.

 

Summary

 

In summary, good potential can be seen for similar or improved grade tin
mineralisation as that found at Taronga in at least four additional prospects:

 

1.   Tin Beetle

2.   Pound Flat

3.   Battery Hill (Stannum)

4.   McDonalds

In addition, many other prospects are yet to be followed up in any detail and
hence potential for satellite deposits to Taronga is considered to be
excellent.  These could add to mine life and/or enable increased annual tin
production.  They all appear to have similar characteristics to Taronga, and
hence may be amenable to upgrading on site by a mobile crushing circuit, prior
to trucking to Taronga for gravity concentration.

 

The recent soil sampling at Taronga has provided an excellent yardstick
against which to measure the potential of other deposits in the district - a
tool that has been lacking up until now.

 

 

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                                               FirstTin@secnewgate.co.uk

 

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.

Figure 1: Summary Plan of TMPL Tenure, Tin Mineralisation and Soil Anomalies
in the Emmaville District, Northeast NSW

Figure 2: Pound Flat Soil Sampling Results

Figure 3: Stannum Rock Chip Sampling Results

Figure 4: McDonalds Prospect, Soil Sampling Data

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