from The Advocate Elementos' Cleveland drilling starts SEAN FORD...

from The Advocate
Elementos' Cleveland drilling starts
SEAN FORD
17 Aug 2017, 11:53 a.m.
Diamond drilling aimed at firming up tin mining plans has started near North-West ghost town Luina.

The Luina area
The drilling program is part of Elementos Limited’s new development strategy for its Cleveland Project, which was released in late 2016.
Elementos told the ASX on Monday the strategy centred around a new exploration and drilling program which had potential “to de-risk and significantly enhance the economics of any future project development at Cleveland”.
The program’s main aims were to:

• Create a longer mine life by expanding high-grade open pit resource;
• simplify the open pit design; and
• decrease risk to help gain project financing and maximise cashflow.

The Cleveland Mine last operated in 1986.
Brisbane-headquartered Elementos hopes to start tin and copper production in 2019.
It said previous mining at Cleveland had been mostly underground, with “very limited” surface operations.
“Historical near-surface exploration has been limited, with most historical exploration targeted towards expanding the underground resource,” it said.
It said the initial drilling program would involve 16 holes to test for extra open pit resources.
An application for further exploration drilling would be lodged with Mineral Resources Tasmania once three-dimensional modelling of magnetic anomalies was complete.
Elementos said it intended to do the exploration drilling as one continuous program.
Its development strategy for Cleveland involves a first stage of open cut mining and tailings retreatment to produce tin and copper concentrates.
The second stage would involve refurbishing and developing the underground mine to produce tin, copper and tungsten concentrates.
Elementos told a recent Tasmanian Minerals and Energy Council conference global demand for tin remained strong and was outstripping supply.
It said existing producers’ production was declining because of lower grades and exhausted resources, and new projects were needed.
New energy storage applications were expected to increase demand and a 40,000 tonnes per year global shortfall by 2020 was forecast, while the price was predicted to increase by more than 15 per cent by 2019.
Elementos had market capitalisation of $8.5 million earlier this month.
It has been raising capital to fund the diamond drilling, testing, studies and corporate costs, and to provide working capital.
Its top 20 shareholders own 63.4 per cent of the company.