The Penouta Project (Penouta), Spain, is located in the Central Iberian Zone of the Iberian Massif. Open pit mining of tin (Sn) and tantalum (Ta) is currently underway, with the Project owner’s previous focus on re-processing of historical tailings recently transitioning to mining and processing hard rock sources of ore.
SRK was engaged by Strategic Minerals Spain, S.L. (SMS) to undertake Mineral Resource Estimation (MRE) for Penouta, entailing block modelling and MRE reporting updates in 2014 and 2021, which were reported in the public domain using International Reporting Guidelines. SMS is a subsidiary of Strategic Minerals Europe Corp., which was listed for trading on the Canadian NEO Exchange in December 2021.
Geology at Penouta is comprised of predominantly high-grade metamorphic rocks, with Augen Gneiss of the regional Ollo de Sapo Formation covering much of the Project area.
Sn and Ta mineralisation, mainly cassiterite and tantalite, is largely hosted within an alkaline granite intrusion at the Project, with deposition likely associated with a late magmatic event. Mineralisation also occurs hosted within quartz veins in the overlying greisenised gneiss, associated with later hydrothermal events.
Through site visit investigation, technical support, and 3D geological modelling, SRK has assisted SMS with further evolving the geological understanding of the local scale geometries and Sn-Ta grade distributions at Penouta.
3D geological domaining of lithological and mineralisation type distinctions, and block modelling of observed grade distributions using dynamically orientated search ellipses, has contributed to the current day interpretation for the deposit, which is currently being used as the basis of SMS’s mine planning and operations.
SRK is also currently working with SMS to assist with further developing multi-discipline mining technical studies.
