Adex Mining has announced a further step in assessing the viability of building a tin smelter to serve its Mount Pleasant tin-zinc-indium mine project in New Brunswick, Canada. It has engaged Xstrata Process Support ("XPS") of Sudbury, Ontario to test the pyrometallurgical options for the extraction of tin metal from tin concentrate planned to be produced from the North Zone of the property.
In a statement the company said that “due to recent advances in small scale pyrometallurgical (smelting) technologies and following discussions with XPS, Adex believes that the potential production of tin metal, as a final saleable product, could have a significant positive impact on the economics of a mining operation.”
The test work by XPS, which is anticipated to take between 6-10 weeks to complete, is expected to lead to additional work for the production of a final tin metal product as an important option for consideration within a definitive feasibility study on the NZ due to commence in early 2011. A preliminary economic assessment of the project carried out last year was based on production of 3,200 tpy of tin-in-concentrate, 4,000 tpy of zinc and 40 tpy of indium over a 10 year mine life.
