Venture Minerals' flagship Mt Lindsay tin-tungsten project in Tasmania's northwest is one of the world's largest underdeveloped tin prospects, while 6km away, the company discovered high grade tin at its Big Wilson deposit in August.

Also in its keeping are two small direct shipping ore hematite projects which are fully funded and are on track for production in 2013.

Venture's managing director Hamish Halliday said the company had been working on the Mt Lindsay project for five years and a recently completed definitive feasibility study which defined 10 million tonnes of tin-tungsten-magnetite ore, which confirmed Mt Lindsay's reputation as a world-class deposit.

Mt Lindsay is located in the heart of a 120-year-old mining district and is surrounded by world-class operations, as it is situated along strike from the Renison Bell tin mine and 25km south of Australia's longest operating magnetite mine, Savage River.

Halliday said the focus going forward would be to assess financing options to construct a plant at Mt Lindsay and finalising the offtake for the product.

He said the area had always been conducive to discoveries and the Big Wilson discovery highlighted the potential around the Mt Lindsay area.

Considering only two drillholes were planned, Halliday said the first drillhole delivered one of the best hits the company had found in Tasmania.

"The grade and style of mineralisation in this discovery hole can only be described as world-class," Halliday said.

"It's an area that was certainly on our radar for targeting but it was in a tenement that we were waiting to get granted.

"We drilled the first hole and immediately hit 47m of mineralisation with a very high grade core at 2 per cent tin over 17m - there's no doubt that is world class for tin exploration and when you get that on your first hole it certainly bodes well for a serious discovery."

Halliday admits more work is needed and because the company was focused on completing the bankable feasibility study at Mt Lindsay, the allocation for exploration at Big Wilson was very small.

"The two drillholes that were planned for Big Wilson - bearing in mind this was a brand new discovery - were designed more to understand the geology and look what the opportunity was and to verify if there was anything in the system that was significant but it was one of the best hits we've ever had in the five years of working here," Halliday said.

Put into context, 134 holes were drilled at Mt Lindsay before a hit was found as good as the discovery in the first drillhole at Big Wilson.

Now the discovery has been made, Venture is set to push forward with a number of programs which will assess the potential at Big Wilson.

While it has given Venture a reason to be excited, the company's small Livingstone and Riley DSO projects are also quite promising.

Both projects are from the surface and with one completely at surface, Halliday said the competitive operating costs were advantageous which presented a great opportunity for the company.

"Over time we've identified two deposits which culminates in nearly 5 million tonnes of resources and about 4 million tonnes in reserves and for us it's attractive because it's such a tiny capital hurdle, it's only $7 million to get into production and obviously it can provide some much needed cash flow early on," Halliday said.

He said the two projects provided a good balance with the Mt Lindsay project and another important aspect to Venture's operations in northwest Tasmania was the existing infrastructure which surrounds the respective projects.

Mt Lindsay and the two DSO projects are all situated within 150km of the port of Burnie, which Halliday admits is crucial.

"Because the DSOs are fairly small in tonnage, it wouldn't support any significant new infrastructure so that's the whole reason why they work," he said.

"Obviously with Mt Lindsay it's a bit different, it's a high value product - we're seeking to produce tin and tungsten but having the access to existing roads and hydropower is a significant advantage and makes the area very attractive.

"The DSO projects are built around the fact that there is such great infrastructure around our project, with sealed roads, a rail line, the port of Burnie with its loading facilities - it's all there in northwest Tasmania."

On top of that, Venture was also buoyed by the backing from local business Elphinstone Holdings which invested $6 million to become a substantial shareholder following an equity raising in August which raised $17 million.

Elphinstone Holdings is owned by Tasmania's richest person, Dale Elphinstone.

Halliday said Elphinstone's backing presented a great opportunity for Venture.

"I think it's always good to have an alliance with a local business and a community - someone like Elphinstone who worked and employed and had successful businesses in that part of the world for decades - it's a great opportunity for us to form a strong relationship with them," he said.

"It was crucial to get the equity raising completed to allow us to move into production on the DSO and I think particularly in this market, securing funding for projects is a challenge and we are very pleased with the result and obviously look forward to moving to the next stage."

The size of the raising was built around what Venture required to get the DSO to production and Halliday said while secure funding had been allocated for the Big Wilson exploration program, additional funding would be required at some point for Mt Lindsay.

"We've got plenty of capacity to get to production on the DSO and that will be our focus and we will work out the financing strategies for Mt Lindsay in due course," he said.

Northwest Tasmania is steeped in more than 120 years of mining history, and Halliday admits it is part of Venture's interest in the area.

"We've spent half a decade in the area - I've been pegging ground there since 2001 before Venture - and it came up on our radar over a decade ago as being underexplored," he said.

Venture has also expanded its management team, with the introduction of chief operating officer Grant Brock and metallurgy general manager Geoff Beros earlier this year, while Jon Grygorcewicz was recently appointed as chief financial officer.

The fact that Venture has managed to build a number of valuable assets in northwest Tasmania in a relatively short space of time points to a very bright future for the company.

"With lots of upside, blue sky and discovery potential that we've seen with Big Wilson, it's going to be an exciting year or two," Halliday said.

*A version of this report, first published in the October 2012 edition of RESOURCESTOCKS magazine, was commissioned by Venture Minerals