Private company European Metals is planning to evaluate the development of two tin deposits in the Czech Republic, close to the border with Germany. The Cinovec tin-lithium deposit has a JORC code compliant inferred resource of 28.1 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.4% tin (104,000 tonnes contained tin). The company is planning new drilling to upgrade this to an indicated resource and after metallurgical test work will produce a pre-feasibility study on potential re-commencement of mining activities. It will also establish a JORC resource for the main zone of the nearby Zlaty Kopec project, for which it also has an exploration licence, and has applied for three further exploration permits in the area.
Cinovec is a tin/lithium/tungsten greisen deposit, which has been mined intermittently for 600 years. There are essentially two mineral deposits which partially overlap: one tin-rich, the other lithium-rich. Taking into account potential revenues from lithium and tungsten, the total resource size can be calculated as 78 million tonnes at 0.58% tin-equivalent.
Zlaty Kopec is a skarn tin deposit with elevated levels of indium and zinc in two main zones. There has been small-scale mining in the area since the sixteenth century. European Metals also plans to carry out some initial low-cost evaluation of three extensive areas of historical tin workings west of Zlaty Kopec while it awaits the outcome of its permit applications.
