Uis TIN MINE TO INCREASE PRODUCTION AFTER COMPLETION OF FIRST PHASE IN NAMIBIA

According to a company statement released yesterday, the expansion of the plant is projected to increase the nameplate capacity by 67% – from 60 tonnes of tin concentrate per month to up to 100 tonnes per month.

“This will translate to 720 tonnes up to 1 200 tonnes per annum as the current output is expected to expand progressively over four months,” said the company in a statement issued by chief executive officer Anthony Viljoen.

“The AfriTin team has demonstrated remarkable resilience in completing the construction milestone for the Uis phase 1 expansion project, despite challenging market conditions and a difficult construction environment.

“We are extremely pleased with the progress and are looking forward to completing the production ramp-up,” Viljoen said, adding the company aims to achieve a significant increase in revenue and a reduction in unit cost through this expansion.

“In addition, the expanded operation will provide an excellent platform for implementing our lithium and tantalum by-product strategies. Through our aggressive development program, we plan to demonstrate the superior quality and scale of the Uis polymetallic deposit,” he said.

The project scope consists of a modular expansion of the current processing plant, leveraging existing bulk infrastructure services.

It involves the expansion of the crushing and screening circuits (the dry plant) and the construction of a fine-ore stockpile before the concentrator.

“In addition, the project addresses potential throughput constraints in the concentrator (the wet plant) that could have resulted from the increased feed rate, as well as upgrades to the concentrate cleaning circuit to enhance recovery,” said Viljoen.

With the construction of the expansion circuits complete, the project will move to the commissioning stage, which is being implemented in two stages.

The first will be the commissioning of the dry plant, which has commenced and will be completed by end of August, and the second stage will be the commissioning of the wet plant, which is scheduled for September.

“The commissioning process has been designed to minimize production disruption,” said Viljoen.

The company plans to produce lithium and tantalum by-products integrated with existing tin production facilities, and the development of these potential revenue streams is being fast-tracked.

As such, an infill drilling program is underway at Uis to increase the confidence of the existing lithium and tantalum resource estimates for the deposit.

“In addition, projects to construct lithium and tantalum pilot plants have progressed to the detailed engineering phase. The company will provide an update on this development program in Q4 2022,” said the statement.

AfriTin’s strategy is to ramp up production at the Uis tin mine to more than 10 000 tonnes of tin concentrate, and 350 000 tonnes of lithium concentrate after the phase 2 expansion.

SOURCE: The Namibian