Metals X has announced that it will update the Rentails Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS), beginning the work in 2022.
Rentails is a tailings reprocessing project at the Renison mine in Tasmania, Australia. The project has been in development for some time; the original DFS was published in 2009, not long after Metals X began operating the Renison mine. The DFS was then updated in 2017.
The Rentails project would reprocess tin tailings stored at Renison. According to the 2016 Mineral Resource Statement for the three tailings dams at Renison, they average around 0.45% tin. With over 22.5 million tonnes of tailings to reprocess, Metals X hold some 100,000 tonnes of tin in these waste piles.
Improvements to processing flows and technologies are key to the Rentails project. Metals X has recently upgraded its fine tin gravity spirals – a key component to recovering more tin from the low grade material.
Once the tin has been concentrated to a low-grade intermediate product, Metals X plans to upgrade the material further. This will come through a tin fuming plant and will produce a 72% tin fume product and a 70% copper matte. Over the projected 11 year mine life, Rentails is forecast to produce 5,400 tonnes of tin annually.
Metals X aims for the Rentails facility to operate with net zero emissions. It plans to achieve this by carefully selecting the operating technology, as well as using renewable energy sources. This includes wind and hydroelectric power from Tasmania’s electricity grid, as well as possibly the world’s first use of green hydrogen in tin fuming.
Metals X will begin the DFS update in Q1 2022, and aims to complete the work in time for an investment decision to be made in 2023.
