Aus Tin Mining Limited (ASX:ANW) CEO, Peter Williams talks about final approval for Taronga Stage 1, key objectives and the bigger picture for Taronga.Rachael Jones: Hello, I'm Rachael Jones for the Finance News Network. Joining me today from Aus Tin Mining
(ASX:ANW) is CEO Peter Williams.
Peter, welcome back to FNN.
Peter Williams: Thanks, Rachael.
Rachael Jones: Now congratulations on obtaining the final approval for Taronga Stage 1. Can you take us through the next stage of development?
Peter Williams: Yeah, thanks Rachael and I'd be delighted to. But I might just take the opportunity just to remind listeners of the journey so far.
In 2014 we completed a pre-feasibility study that demonstrated the technical and economic viability of the project. Then in 2015 we decided to advance a first stage or a trial mine as it's evolved into and interestingly we submitted our conception development plan to the Department of Trade and Investment in New South Wales government back in May 2015. So fast forward four years, numerous studies, and we've now finally received approval for the mining operations plan and we're absolutely delighted with that.
So now the next stages of work at Taronga include finalisation of the preferred contractor, site mobilisation and initial mining and our plan there is to mine 50,000 tons of ore and waste, crush that material and undertake a reconciliation on the block model.
The reason we're doing that is because the potential upgrade is by far and away the most significant potential area of upside and the previous feasibility study we did suggested that with a relatively modest increase in the resource grade we could double MPV, so that's a first step.
Second step is once we've completed that reconciliation, we'll then move towards, I guess, the full stage development of Stage 1 as we've contemplated and that would see us mine a total of 340,000 tons of ore, construct and operate a pilot processing plant so that we can produce concentrate and do all the work that we're expecting and the results we're expecting to get out of that study which we can then hopefully use in our final stage of this leg which is to undertake a bank or a feasibility study or a definitive feasibility study.
Rachael Jones: And you can remind us again of the key objectives for Taronga Stage 1?
Peter Williams: There are actually quite a few objectives. The key one will be the resource reconciliation and evaluation of whether we have a grade upside,which I mentioned before. But we're also looking to evaluate the potential for increased tin recovery and the recovery of byproduct credits such as copper and silver which we've got in resources at the moment but haven't included them in the economic studies we've done.
Now all this work is aimed at increasing tin production, lowering our cash costs, and ultimately making the project more viable and more financeable.
I guess the ancillary benefit that we expect to get out of the Taronga Stage 1 is to provide us some really valuable data both from a perspective of progressing a bankable feasibility study or a definitive feasibility study, plus acquiring the baseline data for things such as future approvals processes that we're going to need - be they environment, community, social, etcetera.
Rachael Jones: And last question now Peter. You've previously completed a pre-feasibility study on Taronga and you've an active exploration plan around Taronga. What's the bigger picture with these assets, and how does Stage 1 tie into this?
Peter Williams: Yeah, that's a great question Rachael and I think ultimately, and we see Taronga as a centralised processing hub with a view to unlocking that sort of highly prospective field that we have at Emmaville and we've got large-scale targets such as McDonalds that could extend the life of the mine operations as well as high grade targets such as the Dutchman that could be processed in conjunction with ore from Taronga and increase our overall tin recovery.
I guess whilst we don't have the reasonable grounds yet for anything beyond an aspirational target, I guess our aim is to develop a 30-year-plus Life of Mine around Taronga, and the Stage 1 project is the first that's realising that opportunity.
Rachael Jones: Peter Williams thanks for the update and congratulations on the milestone.
Peter Williams: Thanks Rachael.
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