Stellar Resources Limited has continued to increase its confidence at its flagship Heemskirk Tin Project, following an Updated Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE).
Heemskirk is formed of multiple tin deposits, the largest of which – Severn – has seen significant drilling over the last few years. The drilling comes in a series of phases: “Phase 1”, “Phase 2A”, and “Phase 2B”. The aim of the drilling is to increase confidence in mineralisation at Severn through upgrading material from the Inferred category to the Indicated category. An update to the MRE, which took into account results from the first two phases, was released late last year.
The latest update incorporates results from the final phase of drilling. This phase consisted of nine drill holes targeting wide high-grade areas of the deposit. The reduced drill spacing has heightened confidence. Now, the Indicated category at Severn’s holds 2.33 Mt at 0.96% Sn for 22,500 tonnes contained tin. Comparing this to last year’s update, this represents an increase of 30% in contained tin.
While Severn sees an increase, there are minor tweaks in the MRE from the smaller deposits at Heemskirk. At the Queen Hill deposit, an alignment of geological interpretation increased its contained tin slightly. Conversely, the decision to omit the Oonah deposit from the resource has resulted in a 5% reduction in the Total Mineral Resource’s tin content. The company quotes high stannite levels and poor drilling results as a reason for the exclusion.
Stellar Resources looks to use the increased Indicated Mineral Resource to support a Pre-Feasibility Study on the project, scheduled for later this year.
Our view: Increasing confidence in the resource is an important step for proving economic viability. The tin contained in the Indicated category has increased by 58% when compared with the MRE prior to the three drilling campaigns. Stellar Resources is now in a good position to incorporate these results into its scheduled Pre-Feasibility Study.
