Bushveld to expand tin portfolio

SEATTLE (ITRI.CO.UK):  London-listed Bushveld Minerals Limited has raised further funds for its planned acquisition of Strategic Minerals Corporation after agreeing on a deal with Wogen Resources related to its alloying business. Both Bushveld and Strategic Minerals have tin projects in development.

Through its subsidiary, Greenhill Resources, Bushveld is working to develop the Mokopane tin project in South Africa, but also has a suite of vanadium, titanium, iron ore and coal assets. Strategic Minerals became equal partners of the Redmoor Tin-Tungsten Project in Cornwall, UK,  in February 2017 after fulfilling the terms of an agreement with New Age Exploration Ltd.

The US$9.0mln in financing from Wogen will be partly used to fund the acquisition of  Strategic Minerals from Evraz Group. Bushveld, which agreed to buy the 78.8% stake in Strategic Minerals last year for US$17.2 million, expects the deal to be complete at the end of March 2017

A scoping study for Mokopane was released in September 2014, but the strategy has since been altered to focus on smaller-scale, near surface high-grade tin targets to reduce the initial capex and time required to bring the mine to production. A positive evaluation of the Redmoor project was recently undertaken based on the results of previous mining and processing studies. An initial drilling programme has been planned to define additional resources and upgrade part of the existing resource from Inferred to Indicated Mineral Resource status.

ITRI View: Both tin projects are at an early stage with no feasibility studies having yet been carried out. It will therefore be a number of years until either project could be developed into a working mine. However, the planned acquisition by Bushveld represents a consolidation of these tin assets and an improvement in prospects for further investment in their development.

Courtesy: www. itri.co.uk