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Metals X banks on been made at both projects over the past
Smith said while significant progress had

year, the upcoming thermal upgrade study
had him most excited about the future at
Renison resurgence Renison.
The study is on track to be completed
this quarter and will determine the value of
introducing a tin fumer to the processing
etals X Ltd expects its flagship Renison production to more consistent levels for this flowsheet.
Mtin operation will churn out more than quarter and beyond. “The thermal upgrade is exciting because
2,000t this quarter after seeing off a chal- “Unfortunately, if you’ve got an old mine it’s the precursor to Rentails,” Smith said.
lenging six months at the longstanding Tas- that has been starved of capital for such a “We’re pushing the thermal upgrade study
manian mine. long time, you’ve got to spend a bit of money hard now because if we can get that project
Despite achieving record production of to fix things or you’re going to have things well defined and understand its benefits,
2,326t in the September quarter, Renison that keep breaking and cause problems un- then we can actually get this thing financed
could only muster a combined 3,485t over til you have actually managed to put that in- and started.
the next two reporting periods, including just vestment in,” Smith told Paydirt last month. “Rentails is a massive resource and prob-
1,486t across the opening three months of “No one likes to see less production ably an easier project to develop than start-
2021. than planned, but it is a function of having ing a greenfields tin operation somewhere
an old mine and else in the world.”
us now having to Metals X has also flagged spending more
spend the money on near-mine exploration around Renison
to get it to where a in the next financial year given the compa-
modern mining op- ny’s improved finances following the recent
eration should be. I sale of its underperforming copper division
was down there last to Cyprium Metals Ltd for $60 million (see
week, and the guys page 38).
have done an aw- Group cash of almost $30 million (as of
ful lot of work to get March 31) is expected to be further bol-
those production stered this quarter with the return of $6.5
problems fixed. million in environmental bonds.
“We now have Smith said the company had no qualms
the backfill capacity about palming off the copper assets – head-
to move ahead into lined by the mothballed Nifty operation in
some of those more Western Australia – which up until last year
difficult but higher- were the hallmark of the Metals X portfolio.
grade areas and “It’s certainly taken that enormous cash
we should see the flow burden out of the business,” Smith said.
tin-in-concentrate “The reason the company ending up
production lift from breaking its banking convenance and being
there. We’re con- in dire straits 6-8 months ago is because of
fident it’s going to the drain on the financials of those copper
exceed 2,000t this assets.
quarter.” “I think we’ve done a deal that we’re hap-
Metals X also py with, we’ve done a deal that Cyprium are
reported an AISC happy with and it will now allow us to refocus
of $26,722/t for our management and our finances on tin.”
the March quar- Smith, who joined Metals X last year as
ter which was sig- part of a major board reshuffle, said the
nificantly above the company remained on the lookout for fresh
$19,000-$21,000/t opportunities in the tin space, particularly in
Metals X has flagged long-term quarterly output of at least 2,000t range guided for Tasmania where it has been present since
tin-in-concentrate from its Renison tin operation in Tasmania the full-year and the 2006.
rolling 12-month av- “The Tasmanian Government has been
Metals X attributed the 25% quarter-on- erage of $18,802/t. very supportive of our operations and was
quarter production drop to lower mined FY2021 output at Renison has also been quite sensible and pragmatic when we had
grade and multiple operational disruptions downgraded from 8,200-8,500t to 7,800- the restrictions with people travelling last
such as reduced backfill capacity, a torn un- 8,200t to reflect the last six months of pro- year due to COVID,” he said.
derground conveyor and poor ground con- duction performance. “We’re talking to them now about the in-
ditions in a stope which was scheduled to be With a further $7-9 million to be spent this frastructure upgrades, particularly electric-
a primary ore source. quarter, the company’s confidence that op- ity, we will need in the future for the thermal
Some $17.4 million has been spent this erations have turned the corner stems from upgrade. We’ve even had some discus-
financial year on fixing several long-term the projects in the development pipeline, sions as to the possibility of hydrogen as a
issues plaguing the Renison operation and including mining of the high-grade Area 5 fuel source for the operation.”
Metals X executive director Brett Smith reserve and the metallurgical improvement
believes this will prove crucial to returning programme. – Michael Washbourne

aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT JUNe 2021 Page 47