Australian mining company Atlantic Tin announced on Monday that it is significantly upgrading its mineral resource estimates at its Achmmach tin project in Morocco, according to a company update.
The company’s update brings the project’s estimated resources to 39.1 million tons of ore with an average concentration of 0.55% tin, totaling 213,000 tons of tin content. The upgrade reflects a 33% increase in tin content over the project’s 2021 estimates.
The upgraded resource estimate, prepared by Cube Consulting of Western Australia, adheres to the standards set by the 2012 Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC) Code, according to the company.
While the inclusion of lower-grade ore has lowered the overall grade of the resource, the company’s mining plan will focus on prioritizing higher-grade zones, or “stopes,” during the initial years of production.
By using an elevated cutoff grade, Atlantic Tin intends to maximize the quality of the ore processed early on, ensuring efficient returns during the initial production phase.
“This increased resource estimate will form the basis of the current feasibility study of the combined Achmmach-Samine project,” Simon Milroy, Chief Executive Officer of Atlantic Tin said. “An updated Ore Reserve Estimate will be produced once the current technical studies are sufficiently advanced.”
Several factors contributed to the boost in estimated resources, the company indicated, including the addition of 18 new diamond drill holes spanning 4,174 meters in the Sidi Addi zone.
Atlantic Tin also recently lowered the cutoff grade for reporting the resource from 0.35% tin to 0.26% tin, based on findings from a recent scoping study and other sources.