News

June 17, 2008

Zeehan Zinc: It Does What It Says On The Tin, For Now

By Rob Davies

Tasmania doesn’t get a lot of coverage in the mining press these days, despite an illustrious history. That’s changing though, and Zeehan Zinc is in the front line with its two properties near the town of Zeehan on the west coast of the island. Unsurprisingly, given the company’s name, zinc is the main target metal, but these polymetalic deposits will doubtless yield other metals as well. Chief operating officer Shane Bartel was kind enough to give Minews an overview of the company’s operations and it does look an interesting story. Capitalised on the market at just £11.5 million, Zeehan has, in spite of its small size, attracted investment interest from the Creat Group of China through a £4.275 million convertible loan note, at a conversion price of 15p. That gives the company a strong interest in raising the shares from their current level of 8p over the next five years, and Creat has got two seats on the Board to help the company on its way.

The Chinese are, of course, interested in a supply of zinc, and Zeehan seems to have plenty of it, although the company’s ore resource table doesn’t make for easy reading unless you know which lodes occur in which mine. The company has three properties: Comstock, Oceana and Mariposa. Comstock has the bulk of the resource with 4.7 million tonnes, although this is all inferred. The majority lies in the Balstrop zone, grading 5.7% zinc.  So far, mining has only taken place at Comstock, from...