Outback Metals puts tin projects up for sale
Because of commitments in developing other projects, Outback Metals is considering selling its suite of Australian tin projects. Based in northern Australia, Outback Metals’ deposits consist of four brownfield operations: Mount Wells, Maranboy, Emerald Hill, and Rosemary. This cluster of former workings is 200km from Port Darwin and just 5km from existing rail infrastructure.
Of the four deposits, Mount Wells is the most advanced. A maiden JORC-compliant Resource was published in 2021: the deposit contains some 3,000 tonnes of tin within 0.41 Mt of ore, with significant potential to expand the resources. A preliminary feasibility study carried out in 2008 indicated low initial CAPEX and OPEX, while the elevated topography resulted in low-cost overburden and waste disposal costs for the proposed operation. The study concluded the estimated cost of upgrading the existing processing plant is very modest (~US$20m) due to the substantial amount of existing equipment and infrastructure.
Work carried out by Outback at Mount Wells confirms tin (and copper) mineralisation from the known deposits extends in both directions along strike, and in both directions across the line of lodes at Mount Wells. In addition, a 25 million tonnes Exploration Target has also been established under Mount Wells from geophysical interpretation. The Exploration Target is projected to outcrop at Outback’s Speargrass project which is located several kilometres from Mount Wells, and where assays of 1.36% Sn and 21.6 g/t gold have been recorded.
On the Maranboy Exploration License, Outback has recently outlined a new 20km structure along the same strike as the known high-grade tin structures. In total, the deposits – which are located on granted Mineral Leases – currently have non-JORC resource estimates totalling 1.65 million tonnes of ore, containing 27,500 tonnes of tin metal at an overall grade of 1.67%.
In 2021, Jadar Resources agreed to purchase the Mt Wells suite of deposits from Outback Metals. The former published the Mt Wells JORC-compliant Resource as part of its Due Diligence on the projects, but the settlement terms of an agreement couldn’t be reached between the two parties.
