North American Tungsten (NTC-V) has begun mining at the CanTung tungsten mine in the Northwest Territories.
So far, around 32,000 tonnes of open-pit and underground ore have been mined, and the mill is running at around 900 tonnes per day. The mill throughput rate is expected to hit design capacity of around 1,000 tonnes per day in October.
The first shipments of tungsten concentrate from the mine, on the border between the Northwest Territories and the Yukon, are expected to begin in September.
The mine’s annual output of 400,000 metric tonne units (MTU) of tungsten concentrate will represent around 7% of global tungsten production, and ranks it as the western world’s largest tungsten supplier.
Cantung had been closed since late 2003, after its only two customers, Sandvik Coromant and Osram Sylvania, terminated their offtake agreements forcing the company to seek bankruptcy protection. At the time, prices for tungsten were US$47 per MTU (one MTU being equal to 10 kg of WO3 per tonne). One MTU of WO3 contains 7.93 kg of tungsten metal.
Rising demand, particularly from China, sent tungsten prices to record highs of nearly US$300 per MTU earlier this summer. Prices have since cooled to around US$192.5 per MTU.
NA Tungsten reports Cantung’s mineable reserves at around 784,000 tonnes grading 1.75% WO3.
Meanwhile, the company is about halfway through a 20-hole, 6,000-metre drill program on its MacTung deposit, around 160 km to the north. Assay results from the first batch of holes are pending.
Mactung is estimated to contain measured and indicated resource of 13.7 million tonnes grading 0.95% WO3, or a resource in all categories of 27.5 million tonnes grading 0.89% WO3.
The resource estimates are not compliant with National Instrument 43-101.
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