PERTH (miningweekly.com) – An optimisation study into the Oropesa tin project, in Spain, has confirmed that the 1.25-million-tonne-a-year project could produce 3 350 t/y of contained tin.

Based on a tin price of $32 500/t, the optimisation study estimated that the project would have a post-tax net present value (NPV) of A$198-million and a pre-tax internal rate of return of 46%, based on a mine life of at least 13 years, owner Elementos said.

The study estimated that the project would require a capital investment of $86-million, which included a 20% contingency, with the project expected to generate annual gross revenues of $108-million a year, with operating costs estimated at $50-million a year, and all-in sustaining costs at $18 607/t of metal.

The optimisation study provides a significant increase from Elementos’ previous 2020 updated economic study, which considered a 750 000 t/y operation, resulting in a pre-tax NPV of $92-million.

Elementos noted that the increase in project scale includes increases to mining, ore sorting, processing and supporting infrastructure and is designed to comply with the Spanish mining and environmental regulations, including back-fill and rehabilitation of the openpit.

“The optimisation study confirms that Oropesa will deliver a low capital-intensive project, with a competitive operational cost base, producing significant quantities of tin concentrate for at least 13 years,” said Elementos MD Joe David.

“The operational and financial metrics summarised in this optimisation study are extremely positive. It demonstrates Oropesa’s potential to become a significant European tin operation, supplying material quantities of tin concentrate into the global supply chains during a period of unanticipated growth in demand to service the world’s insatiable appetite for critical electrical components.

“This optimisation study is now the basis for the company’s definitive feasibility study and will be the basis of all the required regulatory submissions. The fact that the financial outcomes presented are incredibly strong when based on a design which we believe is conservative and complies with all required regulations, has the company more motivated than ever.

“Following recent mineralisation intercepts outside the current mineral resource limits, the company anticipates that the presented optimisation study will prove to be the first phase of a larger mining operation, with the company planning further Oropesa exploration programmes at the appropriate time,” said David.