AfriTin Mining Limited provided an update on its lithium and tantalum by-product development programme and announce a focused geological exploration drilling programme. As communicated in the announcement dated 16 September 2019, the Company announced a JORC (2012)-compliant measured, indicated and inferred Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) at Uis totalling 71.54 million tonnes of ore containing 95,539 tonnes of tin (Sn) metal at a grade of 0.134% Sn. In addition, the MRE included tantalum (Ta) and lithium oxide (Li2O). The presence of significant tantalum and lithium oxide mineralization within the V1/V2 ore body creates an opportunity for the development of additional revenue streams to the Company's tin concentrate product. Therefore, the Company is advancing a metallurgical test work programme aimed at developing the process flow to efficiently produce both tantalum and lithium oxide by-products. Lithium oxide at Uis occurs primarily as the mineral petalite in the ore which is treated by the current processing facility. The Company aims to produce a low iron petalite concentrate containing a minimum of 4.0% Li2O and at maximum of 0.05% Fe2O3. It is anticipated that the process flow design of a petalite concentration circuit will involve a combination of density separation, flotation and magnetic separation methods. The current phase of the lithium oxide test work programme will investigate density separation methods to concentrate petalite. Bulk samples were acquired from the active mining area and transported to test work facilities in South Africa. Heavy Liquid Separation (HLS) test work and pilot Dense Medium Separation (DMS) test work is being conducted concurrently. Preliminary results from HLS tests indicate an upgrade factor for lithium oxide of four to five times, which is in line with the Company's projections for DMS pre-concentration. HLS and DMS test work will be followed by characterization of concentrate samples, which will inform the second phase of test work. Tantalum at Uis occurs primarily within Columbite Group Minerals (CGM) which have a similar density to the tin bearing mineral cassiterite and is currently recovered as part of the tin concentrate. At present, the Company does not receive a credit for the contained tantalum within the tin concentrate. Therefore, the aim is to separate the tantalum bearing minerals from the tin concentrate and create a by-product. Tantalum test work completed to date includes a range of technologies aimed at exploiting the differences in magnetic susceptibility of the tantalum and tin bearing minerals. The results demonstrate the potential to produce a saleable tantalum concentrate, particularly in the coarser fraction (+1 mm). While optimization test work continues, the company will proceed with the process flow design for a pilot tantalum concentrate production facility at Uis, with implementation planned for Fourth Quarter of 2021. In tandem to the metallurgical test work and process development, AfriTin has commenced a larger exploration focus over its licence areas. The immediate priority is an infill exploration drilling programme over the V1/V2 ore body aimed at increasing the geological confidence of the existing MRE for tantalum and lithium oxide (Figure 2). The programme aims to improve the classification of these minerals from inferred to indicated and measured JORC-compliant categories, for that portion of the ore body extending to a depth of approximately 150 metres. This will provide increased confidence in mineral concentration and production estimation modelling, and may lead to the existing Ore Reserve Estimate for tin to be updated for tantalum and lithium oxide. The programme comprises approximately 8,000 metres of exploration drilling and is expected to run for a period of 12 months from commencement of drilling.