20 February 2025

First Tin PLC

("First Tin" or "the Company")

Crushing Testwork Update

First Tin PLC, a tin development company with advanced, low capex projects in Germany and Australia, is pleased to announce that its 100% owned subsidiary, Taronga Mines Pty Ltd ("TMPL"), has received results of additional crushing testwork for its Taronga Tin Project ("Taronga") in Australia.

The testwork has shown that it is possible to obtain up to 89.5% of the contained tin into the minus 2.8mm fraction after coarse crushing, with an average of 87.1% across seven samples. These results are consistent with previous findings reported on 25^th April 2024 and confirm that the project does not require the higher capital and operating cost of ore-sorting equipment to pre-concentrate the tin.

Coarse gravity testwork is ongoing for these latest samples and will be reported when results are available.

First Tin CEO, Bill Scotting commented:

"The Taronga project's unique mineralisation with the coarse cassiterite grains residing in sub-vertical quartz veins allows the liberation of much of the tin into the minus 2.8mm fraction after simple crushing to a relatively coarse size. 

This new crushing testwork confirms that up to 90% of the tin (average 87%) is liberated into the minus 2.8mm fraction after crushing to 12mm and then passing the crushed material through a series of Vertical Shaft Impact (VSI) crushers to simply knock the exposed cassiterite off the host rock. As a result, a large proportion of the very siliceous and abrasive hornfels host rock does not need further crushing or grinding, with between 30% and 50% of the material being rejected at a very early stage, with a concomitant increase in the grade of material going on to further processing.

Unlike other tin projects, that may  incur the costs of ore-sorting technology to achieve similar results, Taronga's ability to achieve this through simple crushing reduces both capital and operating costs, reinforcing our commitment to delivering low capex projects.

The consistency of these crushing results with earlier work enhances our confidence in the overall final recovery for the project, positioning Taronga as a highly cost effective and technically robust project within the tin market."

Details:

Seven samples of material from Taronga were collected - four from the old Newmont adit (HG3 to HG6) and three from the recent trial blast area (TB03, TB05 and TB08).

Head grades varied from 0.12% tin to 0.22% tin with no relationship between head grade and recovery being observed. This is important as it shows that crushing should return similar recoveries at all grades within this range.

Samples were crushed to 100% passing 12mm with a p80 (80% passing or finer than) of 10mm by conventional crushing at ALS Laboratories in Burnie, Tasmania.  This material was subsequently sieved at 2.8mm, with the oversize sent to Gekko Systems in Ballarat for VSI testwork designed to liberate the remaining cassiterite (main tin mineral, SnO₂) that has been exposed on joint surfaces but not liberated from the host rock.

At Gekko Systems, the oversize was put through a single pass VSI and then sieved at 2.8mm, with the oversize put through a VSI for a second time.  The plus 2.8mm oversize from this was subsequently put through a VSI for a third time and again sieved at 2.8mm.

The undersize (minus 2.8mm) fraction from each test was assayed, along with the remaining oversize after the third pass VSI, and this has enabled the tin recovery to be ascertained as per the following table:

Table 1:  Cumulative tin recovery after conventional crushing followed by three passes through a VSI

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This is shown graphically on the following figures:

Figure 1: Cumulative tin recovery by sample

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Figure 2: Cumulative tin recovery by crushing stage

It can be seen that the samples all behave in a similar manner, with around 54% of the tin being recovered to the minus 2.8mm fraction after a conventional crush to 12mm, 73% cumulative tin recovery to the minus 2.8mm fraction after a single pass through the VSI, 82% cumulative recovery after a second pass through the VSI and 87% cumulative recovery after a third pass through the VSI.

Some variations are apparent after the initial crush stage, but the variations tend to even out as the material is further processed.

Further crushing testwork is currently being prepared looking at longer residence time in a single VSI with various closing screens. This may enable similar results with a simpler circuit.

Further crushing testwork is also being prepared looking at replacing part of the crushing circuit with High Pressure Grinding Rollers (HPGRs) which may do the same job as the VSI and could also simplify the crushing circuit.

The fine fractions from the seven samples will now be re-combined and put through a gravity circuit as per the DFS design, to obtain final recovery data from a combination of crushing and coarse gravity testwork.

Results of this additional testwork will be reported as results come to hand.       

Enquiries:

Notes to Editors

First Tin PLC is an ethical, reliable, and sustainable tin production company led by a team of renowned tin specialists. The Company is focused on becoming a tin supplier in conflict-free, low political risk jurisdictions through the rapid development of high value, low capex tin assets in Germany and Australia, which have been de-risked significantly, with extensive work undertaken to date.

Tin is a critical metal, vital in any plan to decarbonise and electrify the world, yet Europe and North America have very little supply. Rising demand, together with shortages, is expected to lead tin to experience sustained deficit markets for the foreseeable future.

First Tin's goal is to use best-in-class environmental standards to bring two tin mines into production in three years, providing provenance of supply to support the current global clean energy and technological revolutions.