() has unveiled a scoping study for its Mokopane tin project in South Africa which shows robust economics and payback two years from the start of mining it says.
From a base case scenario of 691000 tonnes per year run of mine producing 700 tpa of 99.5% tin the project has a pre-tax net present value of US$18 million and post-tax NPV of US$10mln.
Capital expenditure is low - at US$16.7mln while the operating costs are also low - at US$14276 per tonne.
The average EBITDA (earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation) margin is 31.5% over the current 12 year life of mine and payback is two years after mining kicks off.
The study is based on the Groenfontein and Zaaiplaats targets - two of the five targets which have been drilled out at the project area.
Mokopane has a total combined mineral resource of 18447 tonnes of tin (Sn) which has been steadily increased towards Bushveld's 20000 tonne target.
The property also hosts numerous other tin targets the firm said which could increase the resource.
Chief executive Fortune Mojapelo noted: "When Bushveld listed in 2012 we began with a small mineral resource on the Groenfontein Deposit of 5995 tonnes contained tin stating our intent to build a critical mass of tin resource inventory and set up an independent African focused tin platform.
"We have since grown the mineral resource three-fold to 18500 tonnes of contained tin across two adjacent deposits with a positive scoping study offering attractive economics simple processing methods and low capex requirements.
"Our stated objective remains to grow our Greenhills portfolio to critical mass with the economics supporting a portfolio of tin assets capable of supporting a standalone tin company.
"This scoping study demonstrates progress towards that goal and we are confident the identified targets will enable us to do so long-term while we prioritise in the short term the development of the Bushveld Vanadium project in the short to medium term."
Bushveld also told today's statement it will not pursue the Zaaiplaats Tin Tailings Dump acqusition due to unsatisfactory results of the due diligence.
As such the tailings will not be evaluated further as part of the project.
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