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Eloro Resources Ltd. [ELO-TSX, ELRRF-OTCQX, P2QM-FSE] has reached an exciting phase in the development of its silver-tin polymetallic discovery in southern Bolivia, where the company hopes to announce a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) and updated resource estimate (MRE) in early 2026.
Eloro offers a unique investment opportunity because it is targeting two different deposit styles juxtaposed against one another; a very large silver-zinc-lead dominant system located next to a high-grade tin system. It is expected that both will become part of a single bulk tonnage open pit mining operation at the Iska Iska property.
The company has just wrapped up the second phase of a definition in-fill drill program across the starter pit area that aims to improve the tonnage and grade announced in a 2023 resource estimate that pegged the inferred resource in a polymetallic domain at 560 million tonnes of grade 13.8 g/t silver, 0.73% zinc, and 0.28% lead, and a potentially open-pittable resource of 110 million tonnes of 0.12% Sn(tin), 14.2 g/t silver and 0.14% lead in a separate tin domain.
In an interview Resource World, Eloro Chairman and CEO Tom Larsen said he believes drilling will show that the company’s flagship Iska Iska project contains one of the largest tin deposits “out there,’’ a scenario that could make the company a key contributor to a tin supply chain that includes 300,000 tonnes per year of mine production.
In a press release on January 23, 2025, Eloro said it had opened up a major tin zone, intersecting 33 metres of grade 1.39% Sn (tin) within 87 metres of grade 0.74% Sn in a definition program at Iska Iska. The company said tin mineralization is hosted in an extensive breccia unit that is approximately 750 metres long by 450 metres wide and extends to a depth of 700 metres.
Tin is widely used for plating steel cans used for food containers, and in metals used for bearings, and in solder. The Mining Journal has described tin as “the glue which holds together all of the world’s electronics and is vital to both digital and energy transitions.’’
Larsen, who has previous experience in the Canadian iron ore sector, said the company may be in the unique position of having two substantive deposits on the same property.
Iska Iska is located in a 1,000-kilometre-long Bolivian tin belt that hosts the San Rafael and Chorolque tin mines. San Rafael is the leading tin producing mine in South America. Iska Iska’s proximity to Chorolque (just 30 kilometres) is expected to be a benefit as exploration continues
It is a region which also hosts a number of giant deposits of gold, silver, iron ore, zinc, lead and lithium, including Cerro Rico, the world’s largest silver deposit, an operation which has been mined continuously since the sixteenth century, producing approximately 2.1 billion ounces.
Iska Iska, which covers 900 hectares, is a road accessible royalty-free property, located 48 kilometres north of Tupiza City.
Eloro has said the 2023 mineral resource estimate is already an indication that Iska Iska is one of the major discoveries in the prolific Bolivian Tin Belt, joining the giant systems such as Cerro Rico de Potosi, and Llallagua.
However, it is worth noting that much of the current polymetallic domain resource, is defined by 100-metre-spaced drilling, which likely underestimates the overall grade. More recently, holes have been drilled on a 50-metre by 50-metre spacing that has been found to be optimum for confirming continuity and grade of mineralization, especially for high-grade tin and silver.
Back in April, 2025, the company said a 10-hole definition drill program totalling 5,290 metres in the potential Santa Barbara starter pit area has demonstrated that as drill hole density within the deposit is increased, grades, especially for silver, and tin notably appear to rise. The company has said this trend is likely to continue as further drilling is undertaken. In a press release on December 9, 2025, the company said it had completed a second phase definition drill program with 16 holes drilled covering 8,286 metres across the starter pit area. “The latest drilling demonstrates that there is a much larger endowment of higher-grade silver-tin-polymetallic both laterally and at depth, which will likely upgrade and expand the MRE and the planned PEA,’’ Larsen said. The MRE is due to be released in the first quarter of 2026. The PEA will come later.
Larsen went on to say that the second phase definition drilling program not only intersected the longest and highest-grade silver, tin and zinc intervals at the Santa Barbara zone, but also, all 16 holes in the program consisting of 12 step-out and four infill holes, intercepted significant silver-tin polymetallic mineralization in areas considered waste in the initial MRE, due to lack of drilling information.
Eloro is exploring Iska Iska under the terms of a definitive option agreement signed in January, 2020 with the property owner Edwin Villegas, Vice-President and Director of the Tupiza Mining Chamber Department of Potosi.
Under the deal, Eloro agreed to issue 500,000 shares and pay US$10 million to the vendor within four years of the agreement. The deal was recently amended to enable Eloro to get to 100% ownership by paying the vendor US$2.65 million in two separate installments. The final US$1.15 million installment is due on January 6, 2026. Eloro has received a US$1.8 million credit for funds spent on the adjacent Mina Casiterita property. It was agreed that during the option period, exploration and development on the property would be supervised by Dr. Osvaldo Arce, and Dr. Bill Pearson. Arce is currently Eloro’s Executive Vice-President, Latin American Operations. Pearson is Executive Vice-President, Exploration.
The project was brought to Larsen’s attention by Dr. Arce, who thought that Eloro could achieve similar success to New Pacific Metals Corp. [NUAG-TSX, NUPMF-OTCQX], which has three precious metal projects in Bolivia. They include the company’s flagship Silver Sand project, which has the potential to be developed into one of the world’s largest silver mines.
Bolivia is a country with a rich mining history and geological endowment that is highly comparable with other Latin American countries, including Chile and Peru.
Eloro has said metallurgical tests in Germany have shown that mineralization at Iska Iska is amenable to “XRT ore sorting” with removal of at least 40% of the waste in the Polymetallic Domain and up to 80% in the Tin Domain. It said this would substantially increase the concentrate feed grades as well as reduce future operating costs, while significantly lowering the cut-off grades.
The company is proceeding with exploration after recently raising $14 million from a bought deal private placement. On December 22, 2025, the shares were priced at $2.47 and trade in a 52-week range of $2.44 and 77 cents.