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Tin |
AIMR 2009 |
Tin
Tin (Sn) is used in solders for joining metals and pipes, as a coating for steel cans and in metal alloys. The largest single application for tin is in solders, which accounts for about half of current total world consumption. Solders are used in light engineering applications such as plumbing and sheet metal work, in the motor vehicle industry and in cans for various uses. Another major application for tin is coating steel sheet in the manufacture of tinplate, which accounts for about 16% of world tin consumption. Tinplate is used for containers in the form of tin cans for food products, drinks, oils, paints, disinfectants and chemicals.
Resources
Australia's Economic Demonstrated Resources (EDR) decreased by 40% to 145 kilotonne (kt) Sn at December 2008, down from 247 kt Sn in 2007. This was due to a large decrease in tin resources at Greenbushes mine, Western Australia (WA) (refer 'Industry Developments').
Australia's EDR are in the deposits at Renison Bell and Mount Bischoff in western Tasmania (Tas), alluvial deposits in north east Tas, Mount Deans in Western Australia (WA) and Collingwood and Baal Gammon in north Queensland (Qld).
Accessible EDR
All of Australia's EDR for tin are unencumbered.
JORC Reserves
Joint Ore Reserve Committee (JORC) reserves comprise total tin in Proved and Probable Ore Reserves as defined in the JORC Code. In 2008, JORC Code reserves of 57 kt Sn accounted for approximately 39% of Accessible Economic Demonstrated Resources (AEDR).
Exploration
Tin exploration continued at several prospects in western Tas. After a hiatus of almost two decades, tin exploration resumed during 2007 and 2008 in the historic tin mining areas of far north Qld at the Herberton-Mount Garnet field, northern New England region of New South Wales (NSW) at the Inverell-Emmaville field and the Lachlan Fold Belt in the Bourke region of NSW. Data on tin exploration expenditures are not compiled by Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
Venture Minerals intersected several zones of high grade tin tungsten (W) mineralisation at the Mount Lindsay prospect 15 kilometres (km) north west of Renison Bell tin mine and 20 km west of Rosebery in western Tas. The prospect is in magnetite (Fe3O4)-rich skarns within the contact aureole of the Meredith granite, which is part of a suite of Devonian granites that are the source rocks for a number of large tin, tungsten and magnetite deposits in western Tas and King Island in Bass Strait. The best intersection in the main zone was 12 metres (m) averaging 1.84% Sn and 0.26% WO3. A second zone approximately 150m to the west was drilled and the best intersection recorded was 6m averaging 0.51% Sn and 0.58% WO3. These zones contain approximately 33% Fe and the resources of magnetite, as well as tin, are being evaluated.
Malachite Resources continued exploration at a number of deposits in the Inverell district in northern NSW - mainly the Sheep Station Hill greisen deposit, Newstead alluvial Sn-W deposits and the Standon vein prospect. YDC Resources commenced exploration at the Giants Den alluvial deposits near Bendemeer, also in northern NSW.
YDC Resources Ltd continued drilling at the Doradilla project 55 km south east of Bourke, NSW. The Doradilla-Midway-3KEL tin deposits are within a linear skarn unit which can be traced for more than 17 km along strike. The top 40-60 m of the skarn are highly weathered. The resource is limited to the weathered profile (laterite) where tin is hosted in stanniferous goethite, garnets, secondary cassiterite and minor primary cassiterite. YDC also continued exploration drilling at the Tallebung tin-tungsten deposit, 70 km north west of Condobolin in central NSW.
Outback Metals continued exploration drilling at the Mount Wells tin-copper deposit 200 km south east of Darwin in the Northern Territory (NT).
Production
Australia's mine production in 2008 was 1783 tonne Sn in concentrates, which was 14% lower than in 2007. There was no production of refined tin in 2008 compared with 118 tonne Sn of refined tin ingots in 2007 from smelting of concentrates at Greenbushes (WA). The decrease in Australia's mine production was due to the closure of Collingwood operations in mid-2008 and cessation of tin production at Greenbushes in 2007. Total exports for 2008 were 2784 tonne Sn valued at $45 million.
World Ranking
Australia's EDR for tin was ranked at eighth in the world with the major resources of EDR in China, Indonesia, Peru, Brazil, Malaysia, Bolivia and Russia.
Industry Developments
Tin prices (London Metal Exchange) rose progressively from US$6000 per tonne in mid 2005 to a peak of more than US$25 000 in May 2008, and then fell progressively to end the year at US$10 000.
Metals X Ltd, Australia's main tin mining company in 2008, re-commenced mining operations in western Tas at the historic Mount Bischoff open cut 80 km north of Renison in March and the Renison Bell underground mine near Zeehan in May. Ores from both mines were blended for feed to the Renison concentrator. In addition to the recovery of tin, a copper (Cu) circuit was established to recover copper as a co-product. Annual production is planned to be 8000-10 000 tonnes of Sn in concentrates and 1000-1500 tonnes Cu in concentrates.
Metals X Ltd completed feasibility studies into the recovery of tin from tailings produced by historic processing of tin ores at Renison Bell mine. Resources in the tailings dam were estimated to be 18.2 Mt averaging 0.42% Sn and 0.2% Cu which represents 76,000 tonne contained tin and 36,000 tonne contained copper metal. The company reported that a combination of sulphide flotation and tin flotation techniques had produced a low grade concentrate which would be fumed to recover the tin.
In mid-2008, Metals X closed the Collingwood mine 30 km south-west of Cooktown in North Queensland because it had not achieved planned grades and metal production. The company reported that mining had shown that the greisen tin zones were more erratic in shape and grade distribution than predicted by resource drilling.
In the Herberton-Mount Garnet field 110 km south west of Cairns, Consolidated Tin Mine Ltd (CTM) completed a drilling program at the Gillian (5 km south west of Mount Garnet), Pinnacles (6 km north east of Mount Garnet) and Deadman's Gully (25 km north east of Mount Garnet) tin deposits. These deposits are in iron-rich skarns adjacent to granitic intrusions. In April 2009, the company reported revised resource estimates for these projects: Gillian 3 million tonnes (Mt) averaging 0.8% Sn, Pinnacles 1.9 Mt averaging 0.4% Sn and Deadmans Gully 0.4 Mt averaging 0.5% Sn. Although these deposits have been known since the 1970s, they have not been exploited because complex tin mineralogy makes it difficult to recover the tin. However, the company is investigating new metallurgical techniques for processing these ores.
Van Dieman Mines continued development of the Scotia and Endurance alluvial tin and sapphire deposits in north east Tas. A drilling program was completed into part of the Scotia deep lead to confirm the historic government drilling data. The company reported that results were broadly consistent with the earlier drilling and will be used to prepare JORC compliant ore reserve and mineral resource estimates. Stripping and dewatering of an area of the Scotia palaeochannel was completed during the year. Mining of alluvials and production of tin concentrates from the plant are planned to commence in 2009.
In November 2008, Stonehenge Metals suspended operations of the gravity plant at the Granville tin project 20 km north of Zeehan in western Tas because of difficulties in processing wet clay-rich ores. The project has tin resources in the Granville East and Central Big 'H' deposits (both are strata-bound carbonate replacement type deposits), and the North Heemskirk deep lead alluvial deposit.
At Greenbushes mine, production of tin ceased in 2007 with the closure of the smelter, and production of tantalum concentrates ceased in December 2008 when the metallurgical plant was placed on care-and-maintenance. Talison Minerals reported revised estimates of mineral resource for tantalum and lithium however no resources for tin were reported. Tin resources for Greenbushes operations have not been publicly reported for more than a decade. Previous historical estimates of tin resources for Greenbushes were not included in Australia's EDR for 2008.
