Overview
Stage | Production |
Mine Type | Open Pit |
Commodities |
- Tin
- Tantalum
- Niobium
- Tantalite
|
Mining Method |
|
Production Start | ...  |
Mine Life | 15 years (as of Jan 1, 2020) |
Up to the end of 2021, the Penouta Project produced concentrates from tailings.
On January 25, 2022, Strategic Minerals announced that it had commenced open-pit production of tin and tantalum at its Penouta Project using soft rock from the top layer of the open pit, while awaiting an explosive permit to access hard rock contained in lower levels.
The Company, given the volume of its reserves, is evaluating whether to seek additional financing to expand the plant's capacity to 3 million tonnes from 1.1 million tonnes to increase concentrate production. |
Source:
p. 6,11
Through its wholly owned subsidiary, Strategic Minerals Spain S.L. (SMS), the Strategic Minerals Europe Corp. (Company) holds mining rights to mining properties, the Penuota Project, located in the northwestern Spanish province of Ourense located in the Galicia Region of northwestern Spain.
Contractors
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Summary:
Penouta mine encompasses two projects that overlap:
-Exploitation Concession in Section B.
-Research Project in Section C.
Section B
Metallic Minerals
During the works carried out over the last mining life period, large amounts of Sn and Ta were deposited in the tailings ponds, due to deficient mineral processing. Because of the economic and technological changes developed in recent years, the exploitation of these minerals results viable.
Section C
The Penouta ore deposit is located in Penouta village, a municipality of Viana do Bolo, Ourense, Galicia in the northeast of Spain. The Penouta deposit mainly consists of a peraluminous, highly evolved rare-metal leucogranite with disseminated mineralization of cassiterite and columbite-tantalite. These ores are especially abundant in the apical zone, where pervasive kaolinitization of the granite and the presence of flat-lying sheets of aplo-pegmatite are not uncommon. These centimetric- to metric-thick structures are nearly horizontal tabular bodies composed of different proportions of the main constituents (e.g., quartz-mica layers, albite layers, and quartz layers) sandwiched rhythmically. A poorly developed Sn-rich greisen occurs in the granite-metamorphic boundary, and quartz veins with locally developed greisen selvages are mostly hosted in metamorphic rocks. Quartz veins form dyke swarms composed of sigmoidal, lenticular and tabular in shape, hyaline to milky quartz with cassi ........

Summary:
The Penouta mine is located in Viana do Bolo, in the province of Orense (Spain).
The Penouta Mine was one of the most important tin mines in Spain. It had several owners and was closed in 1985 without any restoration process.
SMS currently owns an industrial plant for re-processing old tailings derived from historical surface workings, constructed in 2017. Infrastructure at the site relates to this operation, and includes a power and water supply, road access, ancillary facilities (workshop, laboratory, offices etc). Water for the plant is currently sourced from a meteoric accumulation in an old tailings pond.
The strip mining was done in the open-pit and without a selective way. Mineral wastes were deposited in dumps and tailings ponds, without any type of restoration. These residues present concentrations of metals, such as tin, tantalum and niobium, and important quantities of industrial minerals.
Strategic Minerals Spain company obtained all mining and environmental licenses in 2014 for strip mining.
In the short - term the tailing pond will be processed according to the different grade distribution.
The mining works will be carried out by pumping.
In the long - term tailing dumps will be treated.
Source:
Source:
Summary:

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Reserves at March 5, 2021:
Resources are reported at an open pit cut-off grade of 60 ppm Ta2O5Eq.
Cut-off grades are based on a price of USD178/kg and recoveries of 75% for Ta2O5, and USD24/kg and recoveries of 75% for tin.
Category | Tonnage | Commodity | Grade | Contained Commodity |
Measured
|
7.6 Mt
|
Tin
|
600 ppm
|
4.6 kt
|
Measured
|
7.6 Mt
|
Tantalum
|
85 ppm
|
0.6 kt
|
Measured
|
7.6 Mt
|
Ta2O5
|
103 ppm
|
|
Indicated
|
68.6 Mt
|
Tin
|
426 ppm
|
29.2 kt
|
Indicated
|
68.6 Mt
|
Tantalum
|
72 ppm
|
4.9 kt
|
Indicated
|
68.6 Mt
|
Ta2O5
|
88 ppm
|
|
Measured & Indicated
|
76.3 Mt
|
Tin
|
443 ppm
|
33.8 kt
|
Measured & Indicated
|
76.3 Mt
|
Tantalum
|
73 ppm
|
5.6 kt
|
Measured & Indicated
|
76.3 Mt
|
Ta2O5
|
89 ppm
|
|
Inferred
|
57 Mt
|
Tin
|
389 ppm
|
22 kt
|
Inferred
|
57 Mt
|
Tantalum
|
62 ppm
|
4 kt
|
Inferred
|
57 Mt
|
Ta2O5
|
76 ppm
|
|
Water for the plant is currently sourced from a meteoric accumulation in an old tailings pond.
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