Aggressive work program planned for tungsten play

摘要

Vital Metals Ltd's wholly owned Watershed scheelite project in far north Queensland could be in production by the end of 2008 at the earliest, but most likely by the first half of 2009. The company aims to initially produce a concentrate product comprising 4,000 tonnes of contained tungsten oxide per annum, with a mine life of at least 10 years. If achieved, this would represent about 7 percent of the entire global usage of the commodity, ranking it among the largest such mines in the world. The Watershed deposit was discovered by Utah Development Company in 1978 and was extensively explored by that company until 1985. According to Vital chairman and executive director Bill Ryan, Utah walked away from the project principally because China had "wiped out the tungsten market" by the mid 1980s.