Elementos' (ASX:ELT) unexpected high-grade mineral find in Tasmania

Elementos’ (ASX:ELT) unexpected high-grade mineral find in Tasmania

Manny Anton: I'm Manny Anton for the Finance News Network, and today we're talking with Elementos Limited. Elementos, trading under the ASX:ELT, with a market capitalization of approximately 25 million, is committed to the safe and environmentally-conscious exploration, development, and production of its high-grade tin projects. Elementos owns two world-class tin projects with large mineral resource bases and significant exploration potential in mining-friendly jurisdictions. Joining us today is Elementos Managing Director, Joe David. Joe, welcome back to the Network.

Joe David: Yeah, great to be back, Manny.

Manny Anton: Okay. So Joe, the company has just released more good news following the last lot. This time from the company's Cleveland Tin Project in Tasmania. A diamond drill hole has intersected an untargeted high-grade copper and gold mineralization. Can you give us some details on the results? It was a bit of a surprise, I gather.

Joe David: Yeah. We were certainly confident in hitting something on the way down to the ultimate target, which is this tungsten resource, an exploration target sitting below our tin project, but we weren't exactly sure what. This is untested ground. The surrounds are very rich in sulphides and various other things, but yeah, hitting such high grade of copper. So it's only half a meter. We admit that. Everyone can see that. But the grades are phenomenal. It's just under 10% copper at 9.7. And I'm going to read these because tin's in my brain all the time, but talking about copper and gold and silver, that is not quite there. So yeah, it's 9.7% copper, 5.1 grams per ton gold, 18 grams per ton silver and 1.35% zinc. So that's a very substantial intercept, even over half a meter, we had to get out to the market.

Manny Anton: Yeah. I mean, interestingly, this hole was drilled outside the existing mineral resource area. Right? So, what does this mean? What are the implications from that?

Joe David: Yeah. So I guess, just let me give a background of the project, for those that don't follow. This is an old tin mine that operated for about 37 years through the 1900s. The orebody is well-defined. It has been mined over a couple of campaigns. It's got an established decline and all this infrastructure of a working underground mine. We've got a very good definition on that tin copper orebody. And we've highlighted this tungsten, very interesting tungsten mineralization below.
So this hole was being drilled from the opposite side of the hill from all our previous drilling. And because we were going under the tin copper resource to the tungsten, we've really drilled from quite a wide angle and we're coming in through undrilled land, and on the way through have hit this very substantial, in terms of grade, copper-gold scene, which certainly warrants further investigation. It's 111 meters below the surface and not deep, and it's about 150 meters laterally from the historic decline.

So just in terms of when you drill these things, you start thinking about what it could mean. Certainly this thing, if it gets proved to be bigger, it can be open pitted about 100 meters, or it can be accessed from the previous underground. So all that requires studies and all the formal things we'd need to do. But because of that, it's certainly something that we will look to. When we finish the original target of the hole, which is getting down to tungsten, we will come back and have another look and do some more reconnaissance.

Manny Anton: Okay. Well, I was going to ask in terms of a valuation of this new mineralization. I guess you've already pointed out you're going to complete the hole as originally planned and then possibly come back. And does that coming back mean that you may do additional drilling around that specific area, or?

Joe David: Yeah. Due to the nature of this mineralization, the first thing we're likely to do would be a downhole geophysics. The downhole geophysics is pretty good at finding further targets for sulphide mineralization. So certainly that's probably the next step for us. We will PVC and collar the hole to allow for that. And then, the decision's yet to be made. This is fresh information for the company. Certainly we think the project remains very focused as a tin-copper-tungsten project. But when you hit mineralization, I guess it certainly warrants further exploration. And based on what comes of that, I guess we'll further inform the market of what other things we do. But at 100 meters depth, further drilling is not off the table.

Manny Anton: Okay, understood. And staying on the Cleveland Project in Tassie, what can we expect in terms of news flow from the Cleveland Project specifically over the remainder of 2024? Is there some news coming up soon, or what are the plans?

Joe David: Yeah. Well, absolutely this hole continues. Right? So that's the great thing. We've hit this, but we haven't stopped. We're still drilling, and it's an 1100-meter hole to get very deep into this tungsten orebody and exploration target. So certainly we're very confident and very excited about hitting that tungsten. We're about 380 meters down in the hole right now. Obviously these results are a little bit delayed because they've had to go through the assay process. But effectively, we'll either be more information of some further intercepts of sulphide-type mineralization on the way down. And then when we get to the tungsten, we'll obviously be informing the market as soon as we have those results of what that tungsten orebody looks like, the width, the depth that we're currently testing. And then obviously come back to the market with a plan for either further exploration or some formalized studies, scoping studies and the rest.

Manny Anton: Joe, thank you for your time today and hope to get you back soon with further updates on your progress, which seems to be happening fast.

Joe David: Yeah, absolutely, Manny. Thanks a lot, mate. Look forward to it.

Manny Anton: Okay.