RE:RE:RE:RE:Interesting Tungsten play26 Apr 2017
Almonty eyes Korea tungsten shipment in 2019
SO PAULO (Metal-Pages) 26-Apr-17. Canada-based tungsten miner Almonty Industries expects to begin shipping concentrate from the 2,000 t/yr Sandong mine in South Korea in the first quarter of 2019.
This comes as Almonty unveils a investment in the company by leading consumer Global Tungsten & Powders (GTP). Pennsylvania-based GTP has taken a 19.9pc stake in Almonty.
Almonty produces 1,100 t/yr of tungsten at each of its Panasceira sites in Portugal and Los Santos in Spain, which is planned to be replaced by output from neighbouring Valtreixal when the mine life comes to an end in the next five years.
It is the first time in GTP's 95 year history that it has taken an ownership position in a tungsten concentrate producer and comes against a background of increased vertical integration in the industry over the past decade.
Under the terms of the deal GTP does not get an Almonty board seat but previous investments of this nature by large commodities consumers have later led to full 'friendly' takeovers.
Neither company has commented on such a prospect but Almonty has continually said that consolidation in the tungsten sector is key to thriving in the tungsten business as it has built up its tungsten reserve base through acquisitions in recent years.
The miner was already selling around half of its output to GTP, but that will decrease when the Sandong project moves into production. Construction at Sandong is planned to start in early summer once a financing deal is been signed as due diligence moves into its latter stages.
"We will commission at the end of next year but won't be shipping probably until the first quarter of the calendar year 2019," Almonty CEO Lewis Black said.
Almonty has put its higher cost 1,100 t/yr Wolfram Camp mine in Queensland, Australia on care and maintenance at least until the end of the year in expectation of higher prices by then, following the completion of upgrade work on the mill.
Benchmark product tungsten APT was assessed stable this week by Argus at $212-217/mtu, although forward shipments from China are approaching the bottom of the range as shutdowns linked to environmental inspections affect prices.
Black said he sees tungsten APT prices reaching $240/mtu by the end of the year as pressure on concentrate prices increases.
-By John Evans in So Paulo