Monto Minerals Ltd and Kagara Ltd have announced a deal to allow the start-up of production at Monto’s Baal Gammon copper-tin deposit as well as co-operation in the potential processing of tin ores at Kagara’s Mt Garnet copper processing plant. Kagara has agreed to pay A$6 million in shares plus a royalty agreement which will see it taking over contract mining of the Baal Gammon deposit. Mine development will start immediately, with ore processing targeted to begin in October. Baal Gammon has a JORC resource of 5.5 M tonnes at 0.8% copper and 0.2% tin.
Initially only copper will be recovered, but Monto and Kagara are to jointly investigate the feasibility of implementing a tin extraction circuit at the Mt Garnet processing facility. The investigation is intended to form the basis of a strategic tin alliance between Kagara and Monto with respect to both potential tin production from Baal Gammon and potential processing of yet to be identified material at the 534 km2 Herberton Tin Project. Monto is anticipating drilling to commence at the Herberton Tin Project in the coming months. The Herberton Tin Field has historically produced over 76,000 tonnes of tin-in-concentrate. Meanwhile Kagara will explore the area for other base metals.
