Eloro Resources, a tin exploration company, has discovered an important deep tin mineralization zone beneath a potential initial open-pit at its Iska Iska polymetallic project in Bolivia.
In its recently defined diamond drilling program, Eloro intercepted an 87-meter tin-bearing zone grading 0.74% Sn at a depth of 291.8 meters, including a 33-meter interval grading 1.39% Sn at 339.8 meters. This marks the first drilling in an area with limited tin exploration. Additionally, the upper section of this drill hole revealed a higher-grade silver mineralization zone.
The mineralization at Iska Iska is divided into two zones:
The upper zone, rich in silver-zinc-lead polymetallic mineralization
The lower zone, containing tin mineralization
The tin mineralization is hosted in an intrusive breccia, which measures approximately 750 meters in length, 450 meters in width, and extends at least 700 meters in depth. The company believes this breccia is derived from a large, deep-seated tin porphyry system.
Visible mineralization in the drill core appears as coarse-grained cassiterite, a structure suitable for gravity separation. Eloro plans to conduct additional metallurgical testing on the drill core.
High-grade sections within the well-mineralized intervals included 1.5-meter samples with tin grades of 6.65%, 4.97%, 3.50%, and 2.75%, confirming the presence of cassiterite veins.
Osvaldo Arce, Eloro’s Executive Vice President for Latin America and General Manager of its Bolivian subsidiary, stated:
“As we deepen our understanding of the Iska Iska mineralization system, we have developed a highly targeted drilling plan that continues to yield positive results, enhancing the project’s resource potential.”
The company’s initial inferred resource estimate for the tin zone stands at 110 million tonnes, grading 0.12% Sn, 14.2 g/t Ag, and 0.14% Pb, with a total tin content of 132,000 tonnes.
The overall project resource also includes:
298 million ounces of silver
4.09 million tonnes of zinc
1.74 million tonnes of lead
Given the high-grade mineralization returned in this drilling program, Eloro expects further increases in resource tonnage.
The International Tin Association (ITA) commented:
“We are pleased with the promising drilling results at Iska Iska. Bolivia has long been a major tin producer and hosts some of the world’s largest tin resources, with immense potential for resource expansion. We look forward to further results from Eloro Resources.”
[Source – 上海有色网] Eloro探获高品位锡矿 https://news.smm.cn/news/103200295
