Tungsten Mining NL – Exploration in Western Australia
Overview
Tungsten Mining NL (ASX:TGN) is an Australian based resources company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, that has an experienced management team with a proven track record of tungsten mine development. The Company’s prime focus is its high-grade, fully permitted Kilba project in Western Australia; this advanced stage exploration property is currently being drill tested to further delineate the resource. The project features relatively simple metallurgy which will benefit metal recovery during processing.
Investment Highlights
- Newly-listed on the Australian Stock Exchange
- High grade surface deposit
- Potential to be among the five largest suppliers of tungsten in the Western World
- JORC-resource drilling is well underway
- Definitive Feasibility Study to be completed by Q3 of 2013
Key Property
Kilba Project
Located on a 100%-owned granted mining lease (ML08/0314) in the Gascoyne Region, Ashburton Shire, Western Australia, the Kilba Project is a 12 kilometer circumference skarn deposit which rings an elliptical granite intrusion. The project boasts high-grade mineral potential, with coarse mineralogy and hence simple metallurgy. The deposit is shallow and is amenable to open pit mining.
In-fill drilling is currently underway on the project to further the geologic understanding of the property and fully delineate the resource, and results are already emerging that confirm the results of the earlier exploration carried out in the 1970s/80s.
Phase 1 of a planned three-phase program comprised eight diamond drill holes and was completed on December 16th, 2012. Phase 2 will consist of drilling additional section lines across the 800 meter strike of Zone 11 at approximately 80m line spacing. The final 3rd phase will include further in-fill drilling on selected lines at 40 meter intervals.
The primary objective of Phase 1 drilling was to twin selected holes drilled by Union Carbide in the early 80’s to test the validity of their resource estimates and to broaden the Company’s understanding of the tungsten mineralisation. Phases 2 and 3 are aimed at producing a JORC-compliant resource estimate over the high-grade Zone 11 within the Kilba Project.
Drilling at Kilba Well, February 2013
Drilling to date has encountered an abundance of tungsten scheelite mineralization, which is visible in the drill core under ultraviolet light. Verifying and validating Union Carbide’s previous work will allow the Company to incorporate the results from Union Carbide’s drill program into the current resource estimates.
The plan is to complete approximately 5,000 meters of drilling in Phases 2 and 3 and this is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2013. Concurrently, engineering work will commence on a definitive feasibility study, which is expected to be completed by July 2013, to determine the parameters under which a mine at Kilba will be viable.
Summary
Tungsten Mining NL is focused on the rapid evaluation and development of its Kilba Tungsten Project, north of Perth in Western Australia. Kilba has the potential to host a high-grade tungsten deposit that could support an economic mining project. Fully permitted, with in-fill drilling ongoing for a maiden JORC-compliant resource estimate and all of the necessary engineering work completed by July, 2013, the Kilba project could be up and running as soon as Q4 2014.
The project features simple open pit mining and a high rate of metal recovery during processing, and is a short lead time, low capital cost proposition.
Overall, tungsten is a bullish commodity, with demand currently outstripping supply as the developing economies continue to grow and thus increase their tungsten consumption per capita even as some of the more established world economies continue to stagnate.
Management
Patrick McManus, BSc Hons, MBA, FAusIMM, FAICD – Non-Executive Chairman
Mr. McManus has a degree in mineral processing and an MBA. He is a mining professional with over thirty years’ experience, whose work has taken him to many locations within Australia and overseas. During that time, he has worked in operational, technical and corporate roles for Rio Tinto, RGC Limited and Bemax Resources Limited. Mr. McManus was a founding director and, from January 2007 to March 2010, managing director of ASX-listed Corvette Resources Limited. He is currently the Managing Director of ASX listed Potash West NL.
Paul Berndt, B.App.Sc. (Prim. Met.), FAusIMM – Managing Director
Mr. Berndt is a metallurgist by profession with thirty-seven years’ experience in the mining industry covering technical, operational, project development and corporate management roles in four states of Australia as well as in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Indonesia, China, Peru, Venezuela and Spain. His experience has included the process design, project implementation and operational management of industrial minerals, coal, base metals, gold, diamonds and tungsten projects. He was most recently employed as Managing Director/General Manager of a tungsten mining business in Spain for four years and turned that operation around from a struggling performer with severe technical deficiencies into a successful profit-making enterprise.
Francis Loh, Level 2 ACCA – Non-Executive Director
Mr. Loh is an accountant with a Level 2 Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) qualification, and is experienced in South East Asian capital markets; with a significant amount of commercial experience with Singaporean companies. Mr Loh was the Group Accountant and subsequently the Finance Manager for Oriental Group Ltd, a Singaporean listed entity from 2005 to 2012. Mr Loh is now a director with a corporate advisory firm, providing personal investment planning and company restructuring services to a variety of clients.
Farlee Walker, GradDip(Acc), CA, CSA – Company Secretary
Ms. Walker is an experienced accountant with a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Secretary qualification. Ms Walker has a background in external audit specializing in exploration, mining and resources, and significant ASX compliance experience gained whilst working for Ernst & Young and the ASX, respectively. Currently in a corporate advisory position at Mining Corporate Pty Ltd, Ms Walker provides financial accounting and company secretarial services to a range of listed exploration entities.
Robert (Bob) Van der Laan, B.Bus CPA – Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Van der Laan is a qualified accountant with more than twenty-five years’ experience in the management of financial and risk management systems of public and private companies, in the resources and engineering sectors. Currently Mr Van der Laan is CFO for Potash West NL and is the sole director of Richmond Resources Pty Ltd, vendor of the 20% interest in the Callie Soak Project, which Tungsten Mining has acquired.
