Greenhills Resources Ltd, the wholly owned subsidiary of Bushveld Minerals Ltd, the vanadium producing company with a diversified projects portfolio of tin and coal assets in Southern Africa, has acquired a 49.5% interest in Dawnmin Africa Investments from a consortium of Namibian shareholders.

Dawnmin’s interest in the Uis tin project is held through its 85% shareholding of Guinea Fowl Investments 27. The remaining 15% shareholding in Guinea Fowl is held by the Small Miners of Uis, a Namibian Government entity.

Erongo, the majority shareholder in Dawnmin, will spend up to A$2.0 million to complete a scoping study at the project, including the acquisition of processing equipment where deemed appropriate by the board of Bushveld and Technical team of Dawnmin, which will be comprised of representatives from Bushveld and Erongo.

The Uis tin project is one of the largest known undeveloped open-pit, hard rock tin deposits in the world and has a history of significant tin mining.

• Due diligence confirms large well developed pegmatite ore body with 0.3% Sn commonly found in greisenised zones, estimated to host approximately 20,000 t of tin
• Intent to confirm JORC compliant resource, advance feasibility studies, while simultaneously refurbishing an old existing plant for a 10 t/h pilot scale production of tin concentrate, with a view to scale up targeting the identified high grade zones.

The project is located in the Erongo Region of Namibia and comprises three mining licenses, ML 134, ML 129 (B1 and C1) and ML 133. Historic work confirmed a significant tin resource on all three licenses, the most significant of which is the ML 134 with the resource estimated at 70.3 Mt at 0.14% Sn for a total potential resource of over 90,000 t of contained tin.

Following due diligence work recently completed, the company has identified significant high grade zones that it recommends form the basis for early production with pilot scale production, at the existing plant which is currently being refurbished by Erongo (pictured), targeted for the second half of 2017.

Greenhills, Bushveld’s tin platform, was established to develop a pan-African portfolio of tin assets with a near term production profile. It continues to advance its stated strategy to build a critical mass of tin resources with a near term production profile, to advance the projects towards production and to establish Greenhills as a standalone tin platform offering exposure to a pan-African tin portfolio to investors. Options for listing Greenhills as a stand-alone platform are currently being considered by the company.

Fortune Mojapelo, CEO of Bushveld Minerals: “The completion of the Uis tin project acquisition by Greenhills is a very significant step in delivering our strategy of establishing Greenhills as an attractive standalone platform, with options for listing Greenhills currently being considered by the company. We will continue to build a critical mass of tin resources in Greenhills offering exposure to a pan-African tin portfolio with a near term production profile.”