AfriTin Mining has announced the commencement of phase one validation and exploration drilling at the Uis Tin Mine in Namibia.
Image: Tin. Photo courtesy of Ondřej Mangl/Wikimedia Commons.
Highlights
▪ Phase One validation and exploration drilling at Uis has commenced;
▪ Work continues to upgrade and validate historical Iscor data at Uis to support the declaration of a Mineral Resource estimate, reported in accordance with the JORC Code 2012;
▪ Analysis, digitisation and interpretation of historic data is now complete;
▪ The construction of a geological model, based on historical data, has been completed and has been used to inform the Phase One drill programme.; and,
Field mapping and geological evaluation of the ML133 and ML129 licences has been initiated.
Anthony Viljoen, CEO of AfriTin Mining Limited commented: “The commencement of the validation drilling programme is another important step in the development of the Uis Tin project. The Company has always been focused on upgrading the historic resource that was identified at Uis to modern JORC standards as this is a key element of AfriTin’s current mine plan and the Bankable Feasibility study for Phase Two.”
“The historical database that Iscor originally created for Uis was extensive and provided a high level of detail for the Company. We will now look to use this data to allow for an expedited validation drilling and exploration programme, as well as increasing the confidence of the mineralisation hosted by the V1 and V2 pegmatites.”
AfriTin has analysed a significant portion of the exploration and mine data that was produced for Uis during its main mining production period between 1959 and 1991. For most of this period, Uis was the largest hard rock open cast tin mine in the World. Included in this data set are numerous maps and a significant amount of the exploration drilling data used in the historic SRK (1989) Mineral Resource estimate(non-compliant).
The acquired drilling data includes 200 diamond core and reverse circulation holes relating to the V1 and V2 pegmatites. The V1/V2 pegmatites comprise ca. 42 Mt of the historic 75 Mt at a grade of 0.14%Sn, as defined by SRK and were identified by AfriTin as a priority target in Q1 2018. Subsequent to digitisation and checking of errors, a total of 148 holes were found to contain complete datasets comprising collar information, assays, down hole surveys and geological logs.
The historic information was modelled utilising Leapfrog software by AfriTin, which verified the integrity of the data and confirmed a correlation between the historic drill holes and cross sections in three dimensions. An independent review was undertaken by CSA Global on the geological model, to verify the dataset and to provide an independent set of recommendations for the validation of the historic data.
CSA Global have proposed a drilling programme, limited trenching programme and analytical methodologies that aim to allow AfriTin, contingent on the execution of, and results emanating from these workstreams to state a maiden, JORC (2012) compliant, Mineral Resource estimate on the Uis Tin project. As part of the review, CSA Global generated a first-pass block model from the historic data and carried out a high-level pit optimisation exercise to inform the extent of the proposed exploration programme.
In addition to the tin content, AfriTin will also be investigating the potential for economic concentrations of lithium and tantalum in the Uis pegmatites as these were not historically quantified, but may be significant once project economics are considered. Based upon the recommendations of the independent report, confirmatory drilling commenced on 26 October 2018 and is expected to continue until Q1 2019. The planned programme is expected to comprise 3950m distributed over 27 holes
In addition to the above drilling programme the company has initiated additional work streams on the other mining licences held in Namibia; ML129 and ML 133. Both of these mining licence areas have been historically worked and are considered to have potential for tin, lithium and tantalum.
Geological mapping and sampling is currently underway in these areas with an emphasis being placed on historically mined areas. This will allow the Company to better understand the characteristics and mineralogy of each license.