NEW TIN
DISCOVERY AT ELSMORE PROJECT
HIGHLIGHTS
- A substantial deposit of tin-bearing,
semi-consolidated alluvium has been discovered at the Newstead Prospect,
located near Elsmore, NSW.
- Mapping and shallow auger drilling have shown that
the deposit extends from surface to more than three metres depth and exists
over a wide area.
- Tin occurs in the alluvium as free grains of
cassiterite up to 5mm in size, with grades up to 3.7kg/m3.
- Sapphires also occur within the alluvial deposit.
- This discovery offers clear potential for
significant cash flow by development of a surface tin – and possibly
sapphire – mining operation with low capital and operating costs.
Malachite Resources (ASX: MAR and
MAROA) advises that it has made a significant new tin discovery at its 100%
owned Elsmore Tin Project, located about 20km east of Inverell in northern NSW
(Fig. 1). The new discovery is at the Newstead Prospect (Fig. 2), which
comprises a large tin-bearing greisen system, with associated alluvial and
other surface deposits and numerous shallow old tin workings.
Managing Director, Garry Lowder, commented: “This discovery comes at a time of record tin prices and offers us
excellent scope to start a very competitive tin mining operation at low capital
cost.
The deepest we have
drilled so far is 3m, but from looking down some of the old shafts and pits in
the area, the tin-bearing wash appears to be at least 8m deep in places.
It is too soon to
say just how much tin is present at Newstead, but a few thousand tonnes of contained
tin looks like a reasonable resource target at this stage.”
The new discovery is situated within
Malachite’s EL6196 on freehold land and consists of semi-consolidated
alluvial material that extends from surface to an unknown maximum depth, in excess
of 3m. The full areal extent of the alluvial deposit has not yet been determined
but individual occurrences mapped so far range from about one hundred metres
square to approximately one square kilometre, all within an area of 3.5 x
1.5km. It is not yet known whether the areas mapped separately link up beneath
soil cover, but this is thought to be quite likely in some cases.
“The Newstead alluvial deposit also
contains sapphires and our rights under EL6196 cover both metallic minerals and
gem minerals,” Dr Lowder added.