At a recent auction, Inmet Mining (IMN-T) sold its wholly owned Austrian tungsten producer Wolfram Bergbau-und Hutten (WBH) to a private European holding company. In return, the Toronto-based company will receive $50 million in cash.
Inmet has already received a $2-million, non-refundable deposit, with the balance to be paid in cash on closing, Nov. 2.
“The sale of WBH is another important step in Inmet’s strategy to build long-term value by focusing on our core mining assets,” says Inmet President William James.
WBH operates Mittersill, the Western World’s largest tungsten mine, near Salzburg, as well as a tungsten conversion plant in nearby Bergla. The company employs about 230.
The Mittersill deposit is mined by open-stoping methods at the daily rate of 1,000 tonnes. The conversion plant receives half of its material from the Mittersill mine and half from the open market. In 1997, the plant produced 2,600 tonnes of tungsten powders and tungsten carbide powders, from which 1,800 tonnes of tungsten carbide were produced.
Proven and probable reserves at Mittersill stand at 6.1 million tonnes grading 0.5% tungsten oxide, with additional inferred resources of 2.1 million tonnes grading 0.4% tungsten oxide.
So far this year, Inmet has raised about $315 million through the sale of non-core assets, resulting in net after-tax gains of $50 million. In early September, Inmet completed a $367-million share buyback program.
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