UK AIM-listed Bushveld Minerals plans to acquire the tailings dump of the historic Zaaiplaats tin mine in South Africa, to augment its planned Mokopane hard-rock mining project. Based on historical estimates the tailings contain 2,600 – 4,500 tonnes of tin, while the Groenfontein and Zaaiplaats hard rock deposits which make up the Mokopane project have a JORC resource of some 18,500 tonnes. The tailings are currently owned by Brent Trust (60%) and Sephaku Tin (40%). Bushveld is to acquire up to 87% for up to R10 million (UK£560,000).
The Zaaiplaats mine produced over 100,000 tonnes of tin between 1906 and 1989. It is envisaged that incorporating the tailings dumps would allow for an operation with initial cash generative reprocessing of the tailings, followed by hard-rock mining of the Zaaiplaats and Groenfontein ores. In order to incorporate this scenario into a scoping study, the company plans to assess the tailings dumps through auger drilling and assaying to produce a JORC-compliant mineral resource estimate. This process is due to be completed in Q3 2014, following which an updated scoping study will be released.
