Bygoo

The Bygoo Project is located near the township of Ardlethan in the Riverina District of New South Wales. The project covers an area of 1,180km² comprising three granted leases surrounding the historic Ardlethan Tin Mine (excised from the package) which produced approximately 48,000t of tin from 1912 to 1986¹.

The mine was the most prolific producer of tin on the Australian mainland until operator Aberfoyle Limited was forced to close the mine during the collapse of the tin market during the mid-80’s. There was subsequently a complete absence of exploration in the Bygoo area for 30 years up until 2015. This has created an exciting modern exploration opportunity.

Project Highlights

Advanced, high-grade exploration project in a prolific tin producing region.
- Surrounds the Ardlethan tin mine which produced 48,000t of tin until 1986¹
Significant historical drilling results to date include:
- 35m @ 2.10% Sn from 43m, incl. 5m @ 6.00% Sn from 65m (BNRC011)
- 35m @ 1.71% Sn from 94m, incl. 6m @ 5.04% Sn from 106m (BNRC085)
- 18m @ 1.35% Sn from 58m, incl. 6m @ 2.27% Sn from 65m (BNRC063)
- 12m @ 1.92% Sn from 77m, incl 3m @ 5.20% Sn from 84m (BNRC020)
- 26m @ 1.27% Sn from 140m, incl 7m @ 2.88% Sn from 146m (BNRC073)
New exploration model and belt scale land holding covering 1,180km2 hosting hundreds of historical tin workings, provides scope for multiple discoveries.
At least seven separate tin prospects already defined with most of the project largely unexplored and subject to limited exploration over the past 40 years.
Mineralisation occurs as cassiterite (SnO₂), a common tin ore mineral and most favourable for metallurgical processing.
Provides excellent leverage to increasing global demand, in a first-world jurisdiction with high environmental and social standards.

PATERSON R G 1990 – Ardlethan Tin deposits: in Hughes F E (Ed.), 1990 Geology of the Mineral Deposits of Australia & Papua New Guinea. The AusIMM, Melbourne. Monograph 14, v2, 1357-1364.

Figure 1. Bygoo Tin Project location.

Caspin acquired 100% of the Bygoo Tin Project following an agreement announced on 23 September 2024 with Syndicate Minerals Pty Ltd (Syndicate), to purchase all the shares of Riverston Tin Pty Ltd (Riverston), a wholly owned subsidiary of Syndicate. Riverston holds a 100% legal and beneficial interest in three exploration licences comprising the Bygoo Tin Project.

For further information refer to the ASX Announcement, dated 4 December 2024.

History

Historical exploration during 1960s and 70s was predominantly focussed on shallow extensions of breccia-style mineralisation from the Ardlethan Mine. However, more recent exploration since 2015 has recognised high-grade greisen-style mineralisation, a hydrothermal alteration of granite. Most of the older exploration involved shallow, vertical drill holes that failed to intersect the often steeply dipping greisen mineralisation.

Best results have been returned from the Bygoo North Prospect, approximately 7km north of Ardlethan, where at least five separate greisens have been recognised over a strike of approximately 500m. There are numerous historical workings and shallow pits indicating widespread tin mineralisation. Most of the early drilling in this area has been ineffective.

Bygoo North is characterised by relatively high-grade mineralisation that compares favourably to other hard rock tin projects in Australia. Examples of recent high-grade drill intersections include:

35m @ 2.10% Sn from 43m, including 5m @6.00% Sn from 65m (BNRC011)
35m @ 1.71% Sn from 94m, including 6m @ 5.04% Sn from 106m (BNRC085)
26m @ 1.27% Sn from 140m, including 7m @ 2.88% Sn from 146m (BNRC073)
12m @ 1.92% Sn from 77m, including 3m @ 5.20% Sn from 84m (BNRC020)
18m @ 1.35% Sn from 58m, including 6m @ 2.27% Sn from 65m (BNRC063)
15m @ 1.42% Sn from 120m, including 3m @ 3.44% Sn from 125m (BNRC013)

A full table of BNRC series (2015 to present day) results can be found in ASX Announcement dated 24 September 2024.

The tin greisens are open in multiple directions, with many obvious target areas to extend mineralisation.

Figure 2. Bygoo North long section through the “Main” and “P380” Greisens.

Importantly, petrographic studies have shown that tin mineralisation occurs as cassiterite, a tin oxide (SnO₂), and often the only primary tin mineral that can be economically processed. No other sulphide minerals are recognised as accessory to cassiterite, indicating good potential for clean concentrates. No metallurgy studies have been undertaken to date but would form an important milestone of Caspin’s future work programs.

Regional Potential

The Company has diligently reviewed the extensive catalogue of reports detailing exploration activity across the Bygoo Tin Project and surrounding areas. The majority of work was completed in the 1970’s and 1980’s with only minor portions of data from these reports digitised by the NSW Resources department or 21st Century explorers.

From these hard copy reports Caspin has georeferenced and digitised over 1,400 basement sample points comprising of Auger, RAB, Aircore and rock chip assays. Review of these results has identified multiple basement geochemical anomalies above 50ppm Sn (approximately 5 times background values), many of which are yet to be tested by basement RC or diamond drilling (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Basement tin geochemistry sourced from various rock chip, auger and RAB drilling programs, showing coherent anomalies and peak assay results.

The highlight of this developing work is a 2km x 1.5km basement geochemical anomaly located 2.5km to the east of the Ardlethan Tin Mine. A large basement anomaly, defined by the 50ppm Sn contour, which locally contains zones of greater than 500ppm Sn, is coincident with a prominent arcuate magnetic high and intersecting northeast and northwest trending faults. The Ardlethan Mine is clearly defined by a 30ppm Sn basement contour (Patterson, 1990), providing confidence that the Ardlethan East 50ppm Sn anomalies are a significant indicator of basement tin mineralisation. The Ardlethan Mine is also associated with similar arcuate magnetic features and structural intersections as observed at Ardlethan East.

The basement anomaly is almost entirely under shallow cover. A basement RAB sample of 1.86% Sn lies at the northern extent of the anomaly and remains untested at depth by RC or Diamond drilling. This result is from the final hole of a RAB drill line and is open to the east, west and north.

Figure 4. Basement tin geochemistry showing relationship with key magnetic features and structure.

This developing target represents an opportunity of scale to complement the immediate walk-up drill targets at Bygoo North and South and elsewhere along the Ardlethan Granite margin (Figure 5).

The process of locating, digitising and interpreting historical data is ongoing and may provide further undrilled targets during this process.

Figure 5. Regional geology, prospects and historical workings, showing the large strike potential for tin greisen mineralisation.

Beyond Bygoo North, the entire Ardlethan Granite contact is prospective for greisen-style mineralisation, striking over 20km on its eastern margin. This eastern contact has been the focus of most historic exploration and prospecting with hundreds of small workings and diggings, indicating extensive tin occurrences.

Some recent exploration has demonstrated the potential for further significant discoveries of tin mineralisation across the project area. For example, drilling at the Bald Hill Prospect, at the southern end of the Ardlethan Granite and 17km south of Bygoo North, returned significant tin results from only three holes drilled:

9m @ 0.49% Sn from 26m, including 1m @ 1.42% Sn from 28m (BHRC001)
20m @ 0.30% Sn from 26m, including 1m @ 1.61% Sn from 20m (BHRC002)
17m @ 0.16% Sn from 23m (BHRC003)

No further work has been conducted at Bald Hill since these holes were completed in 2018.

Figure 6. Bygoo North cross section through the “Stewarts” Greisen.

The western contact of the Ardlethan Granite has had very little exploration of any kind, in part because of separate tenement ownership, which has only been consolidated in recent times. Drilling along the western margin has been very sparse and represents an almost entirely new search space for Caspin to explore.

The Bygoo Project is within a large, mineralised belt, known as the Wagga Tin Granites, with many occurrences of tin and associated metals. The Company has additional tenure covering the belt south of Ardlethan with recognised tin occurrences and again, limited exploration, which will form part of the Company’s longer-term plans.

Figure 7. Regional exploration summary of the central Bygoo Project.

For the latest news and information on the Bygoo Project please view our latest Announcements:

ASX Announcements