Interview with Eoin Rothery, CEO of Thomson Resources Ltd. (ASX: TMZ): Bygoo Tin Project is the First Major Tin Discovery in Mainland Australia for Decades
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By Dr. Allen Alper, PhD Economic Geology and Petrology, Columbia University, NYC, USA
on 6/5/2016
Thomson Resources Ltd. (ASX: TMZ), an Australian exploration company operating in New South Wales, received some excellent drill results at their
Bygoo tin project, which is the first major tin discovery in mainland Australia for decades. The outstanding drill results, at Thomson's Bygoo tin
project, include 35m at 2.1% Sn. Tomson Resources has a very capable and experienced team, which is led by Eoin Rothery, CEO and Lindsay B Gilligan PSM
- Chairman. According to Mr. Rothery, the company would like to declare the resource on the project by the end of 2016. Mr. Rothery believes that with
new technologies where tin is now being utilized, it is the metal of the future. The International Tin Research Institute is predicting an upswing in
prices over the next five to ten years.
Dr. Allen Alper: This is Dr. Allen Alper, Editor-in-chief of Metals News, interviewing Eoin Rothery, CEO of Thomson Resources. Congratulations on
your exciting news of tin discoveries. Could you tell me a bit about your properties, and what differentiates your company from other companies?
Mr. Eoin Rothery: Yes. This is the first major tin discovery in mainland Australia for many decades. Since the industry shut down in
Australia in the 1980s, there hasn’t really been any advance in tin exploration. We were quite lucky to find the first sizable deposits in Australia, on
the mainland.
Dr. Allen Alper: Could you tell me a bit more about the deposit?
Mr. Eoin Rothery: It's a standard tin greisen in the roof zone of a granite. It has good grade and it's quite shallow. There were old
workings nearby, but we don't think the old-timers actually dug into this deposit. It's a steep greisen vein. There was some drilling previously, but
the later explorers drilled vertical holes around this and really didn't intersect it so we drilled angled holes into it. It was our hole number ten
that actually found the vein. We didn't hit on it straight away. Tin deposits can be a little bit complex, but this one looks like it's a straight up
vertical vein, with about five to ten meters wide and good grades. The percentage, one to two percent, is what we've hit consistently through that vein
so far.
Dr. Allen Alper: That's very good. Could you tell me what your plans are for 2016, 2017?
Mr. Eoin Rothery: By the end of 2016 we'd like to bring this up to the JORC standard, equivalent to the Canadian N-43-101 standard, so we
want to declare a resource on it. We need to do some more drilling to do that and we think we have a plan to put these holes in place. Actually, this is
one of many prospects that we've found in this tin field. The tin field is around an old deposit called Ardlethan, which is the biggest deposit in New
South Wales, Australia. That shut down in '86. There are multiple deposits along the eastern contact of this granite. Bygoo, the one we found, was the
first one we tested, but there are actually multiple other prospects along that 10km contact that we should have a crack at, which we intend to do.
We're looking to try to develop a standalone project up there. The mineralogy is good. The greisen that we found is simple mineralogy: quartz, topaz,
and cassiterite. We think that will be a relatively cheap plant and easy to process, but the feasibility study will take place in 2017 after we declare
the resource.
Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds excellent! Very good! Could you tell me a bit more about yourself and your team?
Mr. Eoin Rothery: We picked this project up last year. We did it for shares. The vendors have been active in New South Wales for many,
many years, grew up actually not too far from the area and have relatives in the area. They've been monitoring and looking at New South Wales prospects.
The Lachlan Fold Belt has one of the world's biggest gold deposits. It has big copper deposits, VMS deposits, tin, and tungsten deposits; so it's a
really good area to be exploring in.
Myself, I'm originally from Ireland. I spent a lot of time in the Irish base metals industry. Came out to Australia, worked at the big base
metal mines at Broken Hill and McArthur river and then I moved over and spent 12 years in Western Australia, looking for gold and manganese, so I have a
checkered career in multiple different locations and commodities.
Dr. Allen Alper: Sounds like a very good background. Could you tell me a bit about your capital structure?
Mr. Eoin Rothery: Yes, we were originally a joint venture between two ASX listed companies. Back in 2009, ASX listed Platsearch NL and
Minotaur Exploration Ltd. and formed a joint venture over a remote area in Northern New South Wales, called the Thomson Fold Belt. They put their assets
together from that joint venture and floated Thomson as a stand-alone company to explore that area.
We still have Platsearch, now called Variscan Mines Limited (ASX: VAR) and Minotaur Exploration Ltd. (ASX: MEP), on our books that still holds
all those shares. They have over about 40% between them with their other interests. We're fairly tightly held. We haven't raised much capital since our
float in 2010. We have just under 100 million shares on issue. The share price has received a welcome boost from the tin acquisition last year so we
went from one cent at our low to four or five cents, maximum six. We stayed there pretty much all the way through these discoveries. We're fairly tight
structured, loyal shareholders, not particularly liquid, but hoping to attract more retail investors to come in and give us some liquidity.
Dr. Allen Alper: Could you tell me a little bit about the tin market and the uses of tin? I think our readers and investors would be interested
in that.
Mr. Eoin Rothery: Sure. The original use of tin was tin cans, and that's still going, but the main change in the tin market came about
when they decided to replace lead soldering in electronics with tin. So pretty much everything that used to have lead soldering in it, now has tin.
That's been a big boost to tin consumption over the last decade. There are some new technologies and applications; tin is actually found in batteries
now, again replacing lead, but it also has some uses in solar panels. So tin is definitely the metal of the future.
Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds very good. Could you tell me a bit about the forecasts for tin prices? I noticed there was some information in your
presentation. What are experts in the field forecasting about tin and the supply and demand?
Mr. Eoin Rothery: The International Tin Research Institute has been fairly bullish on tin prices for some time, mainly because of the
run-down of visible stocks on the LME. Largely that's been replaced by direct production of tin from Myanmar directly into China. Now, we don't know how
long that's going to continue.
The best research indicates that that may slow down or run out at some stage in the future, and some of the larger mines like San Rafael in Peru
are also reducing production, so on the supply side, there is not much on the horizon, and demand is fairly constant.That's why the International Tin
Research Institute is predicting an upswing in prices over the next five to ten years.
Dr. Allen Alper: Okay, very interesting. Could you also tell me, what would be the primary reasons why our high-net-worth readers/investors
should invest in your company?
Mr. Eoin Rothery: We have made a substantial tin discovery, and our market cap, 100 million shares at four cents, is four million bucks,
so we think there's going to be a big uplift in our price. Any reasonable observer would suggest that such a deposit is worth multiples of four
millions, so if anybody's looking for a discovery phase reward, I think Thomson is one of the better options around
Dr. Allen Alper: Is there anything else you would like to add?
Mr. Eoin Rothery: No, I can't think of anything in particular, except to wish readers best of luck in their investments.
http://www.thomsonresources.com.au
Address:
Level 1, 80 Chandos Street, St Leonards NSW 2065
Postal:
PO Box 956, Crows Nest NSW 1585
T: +61 2 9906 6225
F: +61 2 9906 5233
info@thomsonresources.com.au
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