Elementos hits three-year high as tin resource upgrade work gathers momentum

Elementos Limited‘s (ASX:ELT) (OTCMKTS:ELTLF) (FRA:9EM) campaign to convert existing inferred resources into indicated resources at its flagship Oropesa Tin Project in Spain is gathering momentum. The company is buoyed by confirmation that significant zones of tin mineralisation have been intersected in early drilling. Investors have responded positively with shares are much as 65% higher intra-day to A$0.013, a new high of three years, while almost 400 million shares have been traded. The company started 5,000 metres of diamond drilling across 47 holes at Oropesa in early October 2020 as a part of a wider optimisation program designed to increase the project’s overall resource, annual production rate and mine life. First five holes successful Elementos chairman Andy Greig said: “ALS Laboratories in Ireland has confirmed from core assays that our first five drilling holes to have targeted mineralisation in zones categorised as inferred resources in the current geological resource were successful. “The results from these drill holes will be included in the generation and classification of a new geological resource for Oropesa at the conclusion of this drilling program.” Sixth hole targets IP anomaly A sixth hole, targeting an Induced Polarisation anomaly 600 metres northwest of the current geological resource, intersected semi-massive sulphides from 188.9-190.1 metres for 1.2 metres at 0.24% tin. Greig said: “Buoyed by the results to date, sampling and assay of drill core from an additional five diamond drill holes is underway.” Robust economic study The drilling follows the release of the Oropesa Economic Study in May 2020, which positioned the project as a low-cost, globally significant new tin development with prospective annual production of 2,440 tonnes of tin-in-concentrate over a 14-year mine life. This study was completed with a tin price of US$$19,750 per tonne while the current price is over US$21,000 per tonne. Drilling was initially planned for 42 diamond holes but was subsequently expanded to include an additional five holes with potential to contain unconfirmed shallow tin resources. The program’s principal objective was to convert existing inferred resources into indicated resources and to improve the overall waste-to-ore stripping ratio. It was also aimed at confirming near-surface, possibly fault-controlled mineralisation that is excluded from the 2017 geological resource model as well as testing for additional near-surface resources from exploration targets identified from IP geophysical survey anomalies.