Stellar Resources has increased its estimate of tin contained within its Heemskirk project in Tasmania by 49% following the completion of a year-long drilling programme. The new JORC-compliant estimate of total indicated and inferred resources is 6.28 million tonnes of ore at 1.14% tin with 71,500 tonnes of contained tin. The results will feed into a pre-feasibility study on the project which is due to be completed by the end of June 2013.
The resource is made up of three main ore deposits, Queen Hill, Severn and Montana. Most of the increase in the resource estimate was accounted for by drilling of the Severn orebody, which now accounts for 57% of the total resource. Stellar notes that Heemskirk is the highest grade resource amongst ASX-listed tin explorers and developers, and is second only to the operating Renison mine in Australia. The project is 18 kilometres from Renison.
In a statement CEO Peter Blight said: “I am excited by the increased resource delivered by our diamond drilling over the last 12 months. A substantial part of the increase is in the Severn deposit where just eighteen diamond drill holes demonstrated multiples zones of tin mineralisation and good geological continuity between holes. The Severn and Queen Hill deposits are open to the north and all are open at depth with excellent exploration potential in the untested area of convergence between the three deposits. A comparison with other ASX listed tin projects shows that Heemskirk is well positioned to be a significant future player in the tin mining business.”
