Strongbow Exploration Inc. (TSX-V: SBW) has announced the success completion of water treatment trials at its South Crofty tin project, located in Cornwall, UK. The company is now planning to submit an application to the UK Environment Agency (“EA”) for a mine waste permit.

The mine waste permit will seek consent for water discharge of 25,000m3 from the mine over an 18-24 month period and it is anticipated to be granted before the end of summer this year. Once this is attained the project will be fully permitted with a mining license to 2071 and planning permission for surface infrastructure already in place.

Richard Williams, the CEO and President of Strongbow, commented: “This is an important step forward as Strongbow works to bring the South Crofty mine back into operation. The South Crofty team worked closely with the UK Environment Agency throughout the process and I am very pleased that we were able to develop a system to treat the mine water which met their very high standards.”

ITRI View: Dewatering the historical mine workings at South Crofty is arguably one of the project’s main hurdles to development, so it is positive to see that work to address this issue is progressing well. The project itself also has technical and economic potential, with positive results from a Preliminary Economic Assessment reported by Strongbow in February this year. The study conceives of an underground operation using modern trackless mechanised techniques operating over an 8-year period. Average Life-of-Mine cash costs net-of-by-products were calculated at US$7,409 per tonne of tin, with all-in sustaining cash costs of US$9,790 per tonne and pre-production Capex estimated at US$118.7M.