Tin miner Elementos (ASX: ELT) has hit its second environmental hurdle in a month – and this one’s more like a brick wall.

This morning, Elementos told the ASX it had been notified by its Malaysian partner, Ipoh-based Empire Tin Mining Sdn Bhd, that “the Perak State has determined that a moratorium is to be put in place on the granting of any Exploration Licence applications for potential mining projects in the State for the foreseeable future”.

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That pretty much puts an end to any movement on Elementos’ Temengor Project, which covered 1950ha some 260km north of Kuala Lumpur.

The Temengor Tin Mining Company was listed on the London Stock Exchange from 1926 to 1935, but was hampered by poor water supplies and funding issues.

Elementos had an exclusive MOU with Empire Tin Mining to negotiate a farm-in and JV agreement on the project.

Early exploration had confirmed “hard rock potential” over a square kilometre, and cassiterite mineralisation similar to the 2,200 tonne pa tin concentrate operation 50km north at the Rahman Hydraulic Tin Mine.

Shareholders seemed unfazed by the news however:

It’s the second time this month that Elementos has felt significant impacts from environmental regulation.

Just last week it announced that a Spanish acquisition target, the Oropesa Tin Project, relied on Elementos redesigning the open-cut operation to ensure a significant reduction to its overall footprint.

The rejuvenated operation, Elementos said, “will have a positive impact on the timing and completion of rehabilitation activities over the life of the operation”.

After discussions with the Andalucian government, Elementos revised its Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), saying it was “the most efficient process to expedite the approvals process” associated with the acquisition.

In other ASX base metals news today

Back in Tassie, Stellar (ASX: SRZ) has no such problems at its Razorback Tin project just out of Zeehan on the west coast. It’s just announced a maiden exploration target for the mine and potential for early production from its redevelopment.

The target of 180,000–220,000 tonnes @ 0.8–1.0% Sn has been defined to a depth of 100m below the pit floor. It’s based on 35 historic surface drillholes completed between 1958 and 1982, underground exploration development and a further 22 underground drillholes (1,009m) completed between 1964 and 1966, and samples from 3 costeans dug into the pit floor by Stellar in 2018.

Razorback was operated as an open pit mine by Minops from 1975 to 1978, yielding an estimated 180,000 tonnes of ore at ~0.6% Sn.

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