I was annoyed when WMT sold Zeehan - with tin prices at an all...

I was annoyed when WMT sold Zeehan - with tin prices at an all time high and historical resource estimate of some 50,370 tonnes of tin ... SRZ a high today of 20.5 - WMT 7.7
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The tinpot miner is suddenly respectable
* Barry Fitzgerald
* April 28, 2008
* Page 1 of 2

TIN is booming, reminding Garimpeiro of an old campfire ditty on sure-fire ways to make money, way back when.

"We've shares in the very best companies/In tramways, tobacco and tin/In brothels in Rio 'Janeiro/By god how the money rolls in."

The reference to tramways, tobacco and maybe brothels might be wrong in the modern context but when it comes to tin, it is as relevant as ever.

Thanks to supply woes at a time when tin's three main uses (lead-free solder, steel tin-plating and chemical PVC additives) are all booming, the price of tin has taken off.

It has risen nearly 50% this year and recently touched all-time highs of more than $US24,000 a tonne.

The industry group ITRI reckons that there is a pressing need for increased investment in sustainable (tin) mining projects, and predicts production needs to double by 2012 in order to keep up with forecast global requirements.

All that is good news for Melbourne-based Stellar Resources (ASX: SRZ). It closed 1.5¢ higher at 16.5¢ on Friday, with the market warming to the potential of its recently acquired Zeehan tin deposit in north-west Tasmania.

Discovered more than 25 years ago by Aberfoyle, the deposit - owned 60% by Western Metals and 40% by ASX/AIM listed Gippsland Ltd - has been on ice ever since because of low prices.

Stellar has picked up the Western Metals interest in a cash and share deal and can move to 70% by funding a bankable feasibility study into a development.

Zeehan comes with an historical resource estimate of some 50,370 tonnes of tin, making it the biggest undeveloped tin deposit in the country.

At tin's current prices, that's more than $1 billion of the metal, remembering that it has to be mined, treated and shipped before its worth anything.

Then again, the in-situ value is hard to ignore when stacked against the fancy valuations the market continues to place on more difficult undeveloped iron ore or uranium deposits.

Stellar also owns the 5600-tonne St Dizier tin deposit in Tasmania and is working towards including that and Zeehan in a $15 million float - Columbus Metals.