High tin prices are encouraging several companies to re-examine the potential for tin mining in Saxonia, East Germany. The region, centred on the historic mining town of Freiberg, produced tin almost continuously from the fifteenth century until the re-unification of Germany in 1990, and still hosts large but low grade resources.
Two of the largest projects are controlled by Deutsche Rohstoff AG, a new mining house established in 2006 to focus on the exploitation of relatively high cost but well developed projects or old mines in politically and economically stable countries. DRAG, based in Heidelberg, is investigating the re-opening of the old Ehrenfriedersdorf mine and the development of the Gottesberg project. The two projects, which have been subject to very extensive exploration drilling in the past, contain an estimated combined tin resource of 181,000 tonnes.
While part of the Ehrenfriedersdorf deposit is low grade and dispersed, DRAG has identified one area, called Geyer-Sued, which contains some 46,000 tonnes of higher grade ore (0.56% Sn) with associated zinc and indium. The company has made this the prime focus of its attention. Gottesberg has a resource of 121,000 tonnes of tin with an average grade of 0.26%, but a focus on higher grade portions of the orebody could allow economically viable mining of around 60,000 tonnes at 0.4% Sn, plus by-product copper. DRAG also has third project which is at an earlier stage of exploration, while Tinco and HC Starck are also looking at other potential tin operations in the region.
