Metals X, which has a 50% stake in the Renison tin mine, is planning to diversify its portfolio by merging with Westgold Resources. Renison is Australia’s only significant tin mine, and is poised to expand production to 7,000 – 8,000 tpy of tin-in-concentrate. The planned merger will add Westgold’s Central Murchison gold project and the Rover 1 copper-gold project to assets which already include Renison, the Rentails tin tailings project and the Wingellina nickel project.
Production at the Renison mine, operated by Bluestone Mines Tasmania, fell to 5,014 tonnes of tin-in-concentrate in 2011 due to a range of operating problems. The operation is a joint venture with the Yunnan Tin Group and other Chinese investors. However Bluestone general manager Ross Cook told Tasmania’s Examiner newspaper this week that following investment in mine development and new equipment, production should rise significantly in the second half of this year. Underground operation is concentrated in the former south Renison mine but Mr Cook expects the northern area, called area four, to be in production by July, which would boost the efficiency of the operation.
”Basically it gives us a second mine,” Mr Cook said. ”It will be a much better mine in terms of flexibility and will improve extraction rates.” He said the second mine would give greater flexibility to maximise production, as slowdowns in other areas could be overcome by increasing production in the northern area. Mr Cook said the company has spent $12 million on new underground mining machinery to boost production efficiency.
