Aus Tin Mining has encountered disruptions to its mining operations at the Granville East tin mine in Tasmania.
The company has faced mine truck transmission problems along with a recent failure of the 50‐tonne mine excavator, which could take up to six weeks to repair.
A replacement 20‐tonne hire excavator has enabled the continuation of normal crushing operations.
However, the loss of both the truck and mine excavator decreased the company’s ability to continue its mining operations and deliver ore to the crusher and processing plants for several weeks.
In response to these setbacks, Aus Tin will undertake a strategic review of Granville to determine the most economically efficient means of extracting value from the project.
During this period, operations will be reduced or suspended, which may result in restructuring after the review. Costs for the mine are reduced and staff have been requested to take annual leave.
The disruption to mining activities occurs at a time when the highest-grade ore sampled to date is ready for extraction and when pre‐concentrate production at the plant had been improving, albeit not yet achieving the target production rate for final concentrate.
Aus Tin chief executive officer Peter Williams said, “the failure of key mining equipment at a time production at the plant was improving is clearly unfortunate, but the resulting window provides an opportunity to critically review the project.”
“The company has invested significantly in Granville, but it is yet to achieve selected key performance indicators (KPIs), so changes are required, and the strategic review is intended to identify these.”
Aus Tin is finalising an interim work program aimed at delivering an updated mineral resource, demonstrate grade upside and provide updated metallurgical data at the Taronga Tin Project, progressing towards a definitive feasibility study.
The company has received a $1 million letter of funding support from its largest shareholder, DGR Global, for a term of up to 12 months, with funding requests to be accompanied by details of proposed expenditure and subject to DGR Global approval.
