A subsidiary of JSE-listed Union Atlantic Minerals (UAM), formerly Miranda Mineral Holdings, has secured an earn-in option to acquire all of the shares in Renosterkop Mining, a company that holds a prospecting right for tin, zinc and tungsten over certain properties located near Augrabies, in the Northern Cape.

AUM says the brownfield Renosterkop project is located in the same geographical location as its Rozynenbosch project, and the agreement presents an opportunity for UAM to earn into a large, shallow tin/tungsten/zinc deposit in the Namaqualand Metamorphic complex.

The deposit may contain some 30-million tonnes containing 0.12% tin, 0.58% zinc and 0.02% tungsten oxide.

The Renosterkop project was discovered in the 1970s by Gencor and was explored until the late 1990s by various companies, including Rio Tinto and Trans Hex.

Activities included drilling, bulk sampling, metallurgical testwork and development of a high-level mine plan.

The project did not proceed at the time owing to poor metallurgical recoveries and contaminant minerals present in the concentrates. These factors could result in treatment and refining penalties, which will ultimately determine the feasibility of the project.

To earn into the project, UAM has undertaken to, at its own cost and risk, digitise the historic borehole data, create a geological three-dimensional block model and, together with Consulmet Metals, again conduct metallurgical testwork.

If the geological and metallurgical re-evaluation of the project indicates that the project is feasible, Renosterkop is expected to significantly add to the mineral resources and reserves of UAM in a relatively short space of time, and contribute significantly to the growth of the net asset value of the company’s minerals assets.

The company intends to establish preliminary infrastructure in the area to conduct further work at Rozynenbosch and will use infrastructure for the purposes of conducting work at Renosterkop, creating an initial operational core in the Northern Cape.