tin futures, page-2

oops now I post it

Suddenly, tin's the thing to be in



DIAMOND and ruby miner Cluff Resources Pacific (CFR) is to diversify into tin exploration at a time when the metal's price is soaring.

The company is to explore in three historic tin mining areas of NSW, including around the old Ardlethan mine near Temora.

Ardlethan produced 11,600 tonnes over its life and Cluff believes it can find both hard rock and alluvial extensions in the land surrounding the old pit. The other projects are at Gibsonvale near West Wyalong where a mine produced 7100 tonnes of tin and the old Leviathan mine site near Inverell.

Tin is at near record levels, selling overnight on the London Metal Exchange for $US13,300 a tonne. And yesterday ITRI (formerly the International Tin Research Institute) predicted the metal could get as high as $US20,000/tonne as Indonesia's war on illegal miners reduces tin exports from the world's leading producer.

Tin has come back in vogue lately despite some notable failures - Bluestone Tin having to close the Renison mine in Tasmania and the collapse of Marlborough Resources and its operation around the old Ardlethan mine.

But, since then, Bluestone has merged with Metals Exploration to become Metals X (MLX) and is producing tin just south of Cooktown, Queensland. And Metals X is planning to have Renison back in operation by the end of 2007, and this month expects to get final environmental approval from the Tasmanian Government to re-open the historic Mt Bischoff mine, once the world's richest tin mine, discovered in 1871 and worked underground until 1914.

Moreover, Stonehenge Metals (SHE) recently successfully floated with tin as a large part of its portfolio.

In another development today, Minemakers (MAK) said a large Austrian commodities firm, Wolfram Bergbau und Hutten, was investigating the company's tin and tungsten projects in Tasmania and would provide $120,000 toward drilling.