Among the hills of Nova Scotia’s Yarmouth County, lies the East Kemptville Tin District, a once-promising but now forgotten part of Canada’s mining past.
Discovered as an outcrop in 1978, limited regional exploration and less than 20,000 metres of diamond drilling was sufficient to define a bulk tonnage deposit containing 90,000 tonnes of tin. For context, if rediscovered today, it would rank as the 4th largest undeveloped open pit tin deposit in the world.
Recognizing the potential of this new tin district, Rio Algom(RAL) acquired the project (1982) and fast-tracked a feasibility study (1983) and mine construction (1984).
By 1985, East Kemptville became North America’s first and only primary tin mine with an expected production of 3,800 tonnes of contained tin per year plus copper and zinc by-products over a 17-year life of mine. Despite technical success, a sustained 50% collapse in global tin prices - driven by oversupply and liquidation of the US strategic tin reserve - caused the mine to close prematurely in 1992 after only seven years.
Although regional drilling (averaging 20m depth) confirmed that tin mineralization extends for 22km along the mine trend, no systematic regional exploration was ever completed to follow-up on the numerous shallow high-grade tin intercepts (>1% Sn).
Today, Everest is the largest claims holder surrounding the former mine with plans to drill 20,000m, define district-wide inferred resources, complete a PEA, and advance development of new mine.
Everest is the largest claims holder in the district with 6,604 hectares surrounding the former mine property along the 22km mine/duck trends:
• Dog Lake (1 km NE on main and duck trends)
• Ikes Ridge (1.5km SW on main trend)
• EK South (500m south of main trend)
• Nepsedek (9 km SW on main trend)
• EK West (2km west on duck trend)
• Pearl Lake (9km SW on duck trend)
5.8% Sn at Ikes Ridge (1.5km SW of mine)
5.93% Sn at Nepsedek (9km SW of mine).
Economic concentrations are restricted to rare primary “tin granite” deposits, the well-known districts include:
Globally, bulk tonnage open pit tin deposits average 0.10-0.20% Sn whereas low tonnage underground tin deposits average 0.70%-1.40% Sn.
High-grade tin development projects mainly involve re-opening deep underground polymetallic mines (ex. South Crofty) and reprocessing historic tailings (ex. B2).
But none of the development projects have the open-pit bulk-tonnage and underground high-grade potential of the East Kemptville District.
Greisen veins
Stockwork veins
High-grade boulders
Internal estimate based on achieving exploration target of 60-110 Mt @ 0.15% to 0.18% Sn
containing 90,000 to 180,000 tonnes tin: