While many mine projects around the world have been postponed or cancelled in the last six months, the US-Mongolian company Amerilangui Ujin is still confident that it could begin mining and processing tin ore on a small scale at its Narsiin Khundlen project next year.
Amerilangui Ujin acquired a licence for the project in 2007. It includes ten orebodies which are suitable for open pit mining. The company carried out a drilling and trenching programme from June to November last year to confirm the results of earlier exploration work carried out in the 1980s. The early study by a Soviet/Russian team identified a resource of 57,000 tonnes of contained tin at 0.78% tin, while the latest drilling of some 3,000 metres in 2008 revealed an average grade of 0.84%. The current JORC resource is only 7,000 tonnes contained tin, but the company believes that the total tin content of all the orebodies could be 175,000 tonnes or more.
Amerilangui Ujin is currently in negotiations with investors to raise US$15 million to start construction of a low-cost 500 tpd operation which would produce some 1,300 tpy of tin-in-concentrate from 2010. Cash flow from the small-scale operation would then fund further development of reserves and the construction of a 2,000 tpd (5,250 tpy tin-in-concentrate) plant which could start up in 2012 and involve capex of an estimated UUS$45 million.
