Metals X continues with preparations to re-open the Renison Bell mine and concentrator in Tasmania, with its re-start plan based on combining feed from both the Renison underground mine and the nearby Mt Bischoff open pit. However the Tasmanian government has yet to approve the environmental plan for the latter operation.
It its latest quarterly report the company says that “Metals X has … experienced in-ordinate delays with the processing of its application for environmental approval for mining at Mt Bischoff, notwithstanding the existing degraded nature of the environment at Mt Bischoff, and at the date of writing is still yet to receive the formal approval, which is extremely disappointing and frustrating.”
The two mines could produce some 9,000 tpy of tin-in-concentrate at an operating cost of some A$8,500/tonne. Meanwhile Metals X continues with pilot testing of the treatment of some 18 million tonnes of tailings, containing over 76,000 tonnes of tin, around the mine site.
The company’s Collingwood mine in Queensland produced 548 tonnes of tin-in-concentrate in the April-June quarter, still well below target, although productivity is now expected to improve.
