Despite concerns over the euro-zone economy, demand in the region is helping to drive up the price of tin with both European and Japanese buyers dominating the market. These purchasers are preferentially buying from the Kuala Lumpur Tin Market (KLTM), which in turn is placing Kuala Lumpur prices at a premium over the LME. This strong overseas demand has led to a KLTM price premium that has been ranging between $380- $490 per tonne of tin.  Previously, before the heat-up in overseas demand the price differential between the KLTM and the LME stood at approximately US$120 per tonne.

The tin market has been very volatile over the past month, tracing the price moves of the overall market. The metal dropped below $16,000 per tonne at the beginning of June when panic over euro-zone solvency permeated the markets.  Now, since the start of July as overall market sentiment has improved, so has the price of the metal. Tin peaked around $18,000 and found support at approximately $17,300 per tonne. This week on the LME, the price of tin has been recovering from its near-term low of $17,300. On July 7^th, the metal opened at $17,600 per tonne. Stockpiles stood at 16,820 tonnes, less than one month’s worth of consumption.

Company News

Consolidated Tin Mines (ASX: CSD) has reported results from an in-house preliminary scoping study conducted in conjunction with SEMF Pty Ltd on its Mt Garnet Tin Project. The project, located near Cairns in North Queensland, has the potential to produce the equivalent of US$437 million of tin over its initial 7.5 year life span. The gross value of US$437 million will be earned over an initial 7.5 year mine life, provided tin is priced at $15,740 per tonne. Returns are based on mine throughput of 700,000tpa of tin ore producing 22,868 tonnes tin metal in concentrate plus 1,774,500 tonnes magnetite concentrate grading >65 percent iron over initial 7.5 year mine life. The project has significant expansion potential to deliver additional financial returns over an extended mine life beyond the initial 7.5 years, with an estimated surplus of $214 million in indicated reserves.

Gippsland Limited is an Australian based international resource company. Their focus is to find projects that have had detailed historical analysis, which may have been overlooked by major resource groups. Currently, their main projects are the Abu Dabbab and the Nuweibi tantalum projects, located in Egypt. The Abu Dabbab has earned the JORC (Joint Ore Reserves Committee) Code compliant Resource and Reserve base to sustain long-term, low-cost, non-conflict tantalum production for several decades.

What We Like about Gippsland:

• World scale tantalum projects – 142.5Mt JORC resource,
• Contained tantalum – 55 million pounds as Ta2O5,
• Abu Dabbab Definitive Feasibility Study completed,
• Abu Dabbab has completed an Environmental Impact Assessment to World Bank standards,
• Abu Dabbab is potentially a world leader in the production of tantalum,
• 10 year offtake agreement already negotiated,
• Pipeline of other projects for development.

Chief Property:

Abu Dabbab and Nuweibi – Tantalum-Tin-Feldspar, Egypt

The 44.5 million tonne Abu Dabbab project is forecasted to be the world’s largest tantalum mine and is expected to have a mine life upwards of two decades.

The project is located 25km inland from the western shore of the Red Sea in the Central Eastern Desert of Egypt. Knowledge of tin-tungsten mineralization at Abu Dabbab was first established in the 1940s, but was left undeveloped until the 1970s. In the early 70s, a Soviet-Egyptian team conducted thorough exploration of the deposit. The project was further explored in the 90s by the Egyptian Government and Geominera Italiana. Based on extensive historical data Gippsland has conducted re-sampling of adits to verify the previous results, collected bulk samples totalling 43 tonnes which were used to conduct additional detailed metallurgical test work in Australia. A Bankable Feasibility Study was completed in October 2004 by the international engineering Group Lycopodium Pty Ltd.

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Points of Interest:

• Delineation of 44.5 million tonnes of ore containing tantalum, tin and feldspar
• Completed detailed metallurgical testwork in Australia and Europe
• Completed full engineering design of the open-pit mine
• Completed detailed engineering design of ore processing plant
• Completed a Definitive Feasibility Study based upon an initial mill-feed of 2 million tonnes per year
• Executed long term tantalum offtake contract
• Completed a detailed Environmental Impact Assessment to World Bank standards

View of Abu Dabbab Tantalum Deposit outcrop looking northeast.

The 98 million tonne Nuweibi Deposit which is located 17km south-southwest of the Abu Dabbab and 30km inland from the western shore of the Red Sea, Nuweibi was first discovered in 1944. It was not until 1970 that the potential of tantalum mining was recognized. The same team that explored the potential of Abu Dabbab conducted similar a survey of Nuweibi, including 23 diamond drill holes totaling 2,746m, four surface trenches and four bulk samples for metallurgical testwork. Gippsland will not begin a thorough exploration of Nuweibi until closer to the end of life of Abu Dabbab.

Through its subsidiary Tantalum Egypt JSC, the Company holds a controlling interest in the Abu Dabbab and Nuweibi tantalum-tin-feldspar projects via 30 year Mining Licenses which can be extended for a further 30 years.

Nuweibi Mineralsation Outcrop

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Adobha Project – Eritrea

Gippsland also holds 3 Prospecting licenses (PL) in a high prospective region in northern Eritrea. The three PLs cover 300km2 of ground that is prospective for both VMS mineralisation and structurally controlled gold mineralisation. The PLs were selected following an interpretation of Thematic Mapper (TM) satellite data of a large part of northern Eritrea. During this study, the Bisha and Zara (Koka) mineral deposit areas were used as type examples. The Bisha deposit was selected as it represents a VMS deposit of the type that can be expected to occur in the area of interest. Zara (Koka) was selected as it represents a structurally controlled gold deposit located in the southern part of the area of interest.
The three PLs are located in a geological setting similar to the Bisha gold-base metal VMS deposit located some 174km to the south that contains 1.44Moz Au, 0.39Mt Cu and 0.499Mt Zn. The structural setting of the area covered by the PLs is also similar to that found at the 0.94Moz Zara (Koka) gold project located along strike some 65km to the south.

Initial exploration has yielded encouraging results as a result with rock chip sampling assaying well for copper and gold

Management

Ian J Gandel (Non Executive Chairman), LLB, BEc, FCPA, FAICD

Mr Ian Gandel is a Melbourne businessman with extensive experience in retail management, retail property and the mineral resource industry.

He has been an investor in the mining industry since 1994 and is currently a substantial shareholder of a number of publicly listed Australian companies.

Mr Gandel is also a non-executive director of Alliance Resources Limited and Alkane Resources Ltd.

Robert John (Jack) Telford (Executive Director & Chief Executive Officer), AWAIT (Chem.) MRACI.

Mr Telford is an Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of Gippsland Limited.

Mr Telford has more than 30 years of senior management experience in technology and resource-based industries. With widespread international experience, he is well placed to lead the development of Gippsland’s projects in Egypt. He is largely responsible for securing Gippsland’s projects.

Mr Telford resource credentials include 17 years direct involvement with international companies, both private and public, at the Chief Executive Officer level. His experience has also included technology-based companies involved in complex inorganic and organic chemical manufacture. He has been involved in the pharmaceutical industry having been a past chairman and a major shareholder of the company Inovax Limited.

He holds an Associate degree in Pure Chemistry (Organic and Inorganic) having graduated from the Institute of Technology of Western Australia (now Curtin University) in 1967.

Jon Starink (Executive Director) BSC (Hon1), BChemE(Hon1), MApplSc, F AusIMM, FIEAust, FIChemE, MRACI, MTMS, CPEng, CChem, CSci

Mr Starink’s qualifications include Bachelor of Science with First Class Honours (University of Sydney), a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering with First Class Honours (University of Sydney) and a Master of Applied Science (University of Sydney). He held the position of Deputy Head Department of Chemical Engineering at Curtin University of Technology during 1984-85 & 1987.

Based in London, Jon Starink is a Chartered Professional Engineer, a Chartered Scientist and a Chartered Industrial Chemist, a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia, a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, a Member of The Metallurgical Society and a Member of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute.

He has 30 years experience in the mining industry in the role of both executive and non-executive director. His extensive practical and operational experience includes engineering design and project management; mining exploration management; science and engineering research & development and process innovation & development.

Of particular relevance, for ten years he served in senior technical and engineering roles with the Sons of Gwalia Ltd Greenbushes tantalum-tin project where he was directly responsible for process development, project design and construction management for the tin smelter and tantalum extraction projects.

John Morrison Chisholm (Chief Geologist) B.Sc (Hons), PhD., FAusIMM, F.AIG

Geologist Dr Chisholm has a wide experience in exploration geology and exploration management having worked as lecturer at the University of Western Australia and Curtin University prior to working for various international mining companies.

Dr Chisholm is a Fellow of both the Australian Institute of Geoscientists and the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy with Chartered Practising status in Geology. He was one of the first geologists in Australia to have been awarded Practising Chartered Status in geology by the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy which is the highest level of recognition that can be attained by professional geologists.

In 1984 he joined Western United Mining Services Pty Ltd during which time as managing director he managed a large group of geoscientists and was involved in the discovery of the Transvaal and Bounty gold mines. Dr Chisholm has over 25 years experience in the mineral industry including the evaluation of exploration data, mineral resources and ore reserves.

John Stuart Ferguson Dunlop (Non-Executive Director) BE, M Eng Sc, P Cert Arb, CP, F AusIMM, F IMMM, M SME, M CIMM, M MICA

John Stuart Ferguson Dunlop holds Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Mining Engineering from the University of Melbourne. He is a certified Mine Manager having approximately 35 years of international surface and underground mining experience in a variety of base metal, industrial and precious metal production and management situations.

He is a Director of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM) and Chairman of its affiliate, the Mineral Industry Consultants Association (MICA).

Mr Dunlop is an experienced mining engineer having been involved in the design, construction and on-going operation of a number of major resource projects throughout the world. He has operated his own mining consulting firm based in Perth since 1992 and was previously a senior executive with BHP’s (now BHP Billiton) Minerals Division, before becoming General Manager Operations for Aztec Mining Co Ltd until this company’s takeover by Normandy Mining Ltd.

John Damian Kenny (Non-Executive Director) B. Com (Hons), LLB

Mr Kenny is a lawyer with a specialised interest in venture capital, initial public offerings and mergers and acquisitions. He has extensive experience in public equity fundraisings and the pricing of equity, debt and derivative securities.

Governor Eko Maulana Ali is quoted saying:

“Traditional Tin mining has been expanding. Farmers and fishermen have now switched to mine Tin.”

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One of the dealers is quoted saying:

“The market was traded mostly lower this week, so we expect to see more buying support next week as prices are still low.”

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President Director Wachid Usman is quoted saying:

“We’re competing with illegal miners that operate near and within our mining areas.”

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One of the dealers is quoted saying:

“The market was traded mostly lower this week, so we expect to see more buying support next week as prices are still low.”

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Matt Sykes, UK field marketing manager is quoted saying:

“Reducing that ring took 10pc of the metal content out. With 15million metal two and a half litre tins sold every year, if everyone used Ringo it would save 400 tonnes of steel per year.”

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Barry Wills is quoted saying:

“The present historic resource consists of 53 identified potential orebodies in the South Crofty area, containing varying amounts of copper, zinc, silver, indium, tungsten and uranium, and now gold, as well as, of course, tin.”

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Venture is quoted saying:

“Having completed the resource drilling the Company engaged several specialist consultants to produce the first independent scoping study in the Mt Lindsay Deposit. Results exceeded expectation with over $700 million in net cash generated over a 7 year mine life.”

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TCIL Managing Director Tarun Daga told a press conference, “Our company will continue its strategic thrust of maintaining 25 to 30 per cent of its business as exports to specific end-users in South-East Asia, West Asia, Europe and neighbouring countries.”

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