Uis Tin Mine ships first tin concentrate

 21 February 2020

AfriTin Mining Limited, a tin mining company with a portfolio of assets in Namibia and South Africa, has provided an operational update relating to its Phase 1 pilot plant project at its flagship asset, the Uis Tin Mine in Namibia.

The first shipment of tin concentrate (6 t grading more than 60% Sn metal contained) has now been delivered to Thailand Smelting and Refining Company, according to the terms of the offtake agreement announced in August 2019. The concentrate was produced by the company’s Phase 1 pilot mining and processing facility at Uis during October and November 2019.

A second shipment of 20 t of tin concentrate has been dispatched from the mine. The concentrate is trucked to the port of Walvis Bay in Namibia, then shipped to Thailand. The offtake agreement provides for an 80% prepayment for each shipment upon bill of lading in Walvis Bay.

Following initial production of tin concentrate, processing plant throughput has increased by an average of 63% month-on-month from 4 300 t of ore in November 2019, to 5 800 t in December 2019, and to 11 400 tonnes in January 2020. AfriTin expects to continue to ramp up plant production over the next six months to nameplate of 45 000 t of ore to the plant and the production of 60 t of tin concentrate per month.

The ramp-up is supported by operational commissioning initiatives including:

• Transition from the current six-day plant roster to a continuous 24/7 operation, pending the required government approvals.
• Debottlenecking of and enhancements to the processing plant, in particular the fines tailings dewatering circuits which require additional capacity due to a higher than expected fines ratio in the run-of-mine feed.
• Expanding the on-site laboratory to facilitate metal accounting and increased plant recovery.
• Implementation of a computerised maintenance management system to support targeted plant availability. The debottlenecking of the processing plant focuses on the dewatering of the grits tailings (less than 630 microns), dewatering of the slimes tailings (less than 45 microns) and expanding the feed capacity to the spiral plant. Modifications currently in progress are expected to more than double the throughput capacity of these circuits.

AfriTin has also announced the appointment of Nico Smit as vice president of operations and projects. He is a qualified processing engineer and brings a wealth of operational experience to the team, including process plant commissioning and optimisation, and various executive management roles in the mining sector. He joins the company from his current position as regional director advisory at Hatch.

 “The first shipment of tin concentrate and first revenues from the Uis Tin Mine in three decades marks a significant milestone for the Company and the Erongo region of Namibia,” says AfriTin Mining CEO Anthony Viljoen.

 “We will continue to deliver this operation as we ramp up production to nameplate of 60 t of tin concentrate per month. Combined with a JORC-compliant mineral resource estimate of 95 539 t of contained Sn, we are well placed to advance the project to the goal of establishing an enlarged mining and processing facility.”

SOURCE: Modern Mining

https://www.crown.co.za/modern-mining/industry-news/11906-uis-tin-mine-ships-first-tin-concentrate