Uis Phase 1 Expansion Commissioning Complete

7 November 2022

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 (MAR) as in force in the United Kingdom pursuant to the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. Upon the publication of this announcement via Regulatory Information Service (RIS), this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

AfriTin Mining Limited

 ("AfriTin" or the "Company")

Uis Phase 1 Expansion Commissioning Complete

AfriTin Mining Limited (AIM: ATM), an African technology metals mining company with a portfolio of mining and exploration assets in Namibia, is pleased to provide an update of its Phase 1 Expansion Project at the Uis Mine ("Uis").

Highlights:

·      Commissioning of the Uis Phase 1 Expansion Project complete;

·      Production projected to ramp up from 780 to 1200 tpa of tin concentrate over the next three months; and

·      The potential by-product production of lithium and tantalum is expected to benefit from the plant throughput expansion due to its co-occurrence within the ore.

Anthony Viljoen (CEO) commented:

"We are extremely pleased to announce the completion of commissioning for our Uis Phase 1 Expansion Project. The beneficiation plant is performing well, and the production ramp-up from pre-expansion levels is going according to plan. The potential production of lithium and tantalum by-products is also expected to benefit from the expansion of the throughput capacity of the plant, since these minerals will be extracted from the existing processing streams.

Our team has once again demonstrated the ability to deliver value accretive projects. Our development strategy is centred on driving costs down whilst expanding our mineral resource base, production volumes and product portfolio of tin, lithium and tantalum with the concomitant increase in revenue streams. We remain committed to our goal of becoming a tier-one producer of technology metals."

Project Overview

The Uis Phase 1 Expansion Project ("the Project") targets an increase in production at Uis from approximately 780 tonnes per annum ("tpa") to 1200 tpa tin concentrate (470 tpa and 720 tpa tin contained in concentrate respectively). The Project scope consists of a modular expansion of the current processing plant, leveraging existing bulk infrastructure services. Specifically, it involves the expansion of the crushing and screening circuits ("the dry plant") and construction of a fines ore stockpile prior to the concentrator. The expansion of the dry plant will allow the operation to increase the feed rate of ore to the plant by approximately 50%, while the new stockpile provides buffer capacity before the concentrator ("the wet plant") to increase plant utilisation. In addition, the Project addresses potential throughput constraints in the concentrator due to the increased feed rate, as well as upgrades to the concentrate cleaning circuit to enhance tin recovery, and upgrades to the process control and instrumentation to improve plant operability and utilisation.

Plant Commissioning

The Project commenced in September 2021 with the ordering of long lead items. Project construction was completed in mid-September 2022 and commissioned one month later. A C4 commissioning certificate has been received from Consulmet, an independent mineral processing consultancy that acted as commissioning manager. C4 commissioning refers to the hot commissioning of processing circuits and involves stages including feeding ore material into the process plant, validating process flows and instrumentation readings, and the achievement of instantaneous design throughput. A C4 certificate indicates that the entire system is complete and fully operational.

Current daily production has now matched pre-expansion levels, as planned, and the plant will be ramped up over  the next three months to achieve continuous design throughput.

Uis Development Strategy

The Company is developing its business aspirations in Namibia through expansion of its mineral resource base, expansion of both production volume and product portfolio, and a strategic focus on supplying metals to the technology and renewable energy sectors.

The Uis Mine is AfriTin's flagship project and underpins its development strategy. The ore mined at Uis contains additional commodities in addition to tin, including lithium and tantalum. An infill exploration programme is currently in progress, aiming to improve the geological confidence of the present lithium and tantalum mineral resource estimate.

The existing plant processing circuits extract a high-quality tin concentrate. The Company has initiated a further expansion of the current plant to produce a saleable tantalum concentrate. In addition, successful bench scale tests for the production of a lithium concentrate will be followed by the construction of a lithium pilot plant at the mine site.

The increased plant throughput resulting from the Project is also expected to benefit the ultimate production of lithium and tantalum by-products, since these minerals are present in the same ore stream as tin. AfriTin is investigating the suitability of sensor-based ore sorting which has the potential to further expand the throughput of ore at Uis by a factor of two to three times.

The Company will provide an update on its Uis development programme in due course.

* The Company's Financial Year runs from March to February. All reference to quarters applies to the financial year reporting period, unless stated otherwise.

About AfriTin Mining Limited

Notes to Editors

AfriTin Mining Limited is a London-listed technology metals mining company with a vision to create a portfolio of globally significant, conflict-free, producing and exploration assets. The Company's flagship asset is the Uis Tin Mine in Namibia, formerly the world's largest hard-rock open cast tin mine.

AfriTin is managed by an experienced board of directors and management team with a current strategy to ramp-up production at the Uis Mine in Namibia to more than 10,000 tonnes of tin concentrate and 350,000 tonnes of lithium concentrate in a Phase 2 expansion, having reached Phase 1 commercial production in 2020. The Company strives to capitalise on the solid supply/demand fundamentals of tin and lithium by developing a critical mass of resource inventory, achieving production in the near term and further scaling production by consolidating assets in Africa.