Ormonde Mining now has a clear path to construction and production at the Barruecopardo tungsten project in Spain
The money’s in the bank, the permits are falling into place, and major items of plant will shortly be ordered.

It all seems to be falling into place for Ormonde Mining (LON:ORM), which after a slow start on the markets many years ago has gradually been building up a head of steam at its Barruecopardo tungsten project in Spain. This is a brown-fields site which ceased operations in 1982, and crucially for Ormonde, the local population has felt its loss deeply.There is strong appetite for a resumption of mining, which should spark a rejuvenation process for a town where the average age is 66. There’s much work to be done yet, of course. But with a multi-billion dollar hedge fund backing development, a definitive feasibility study in place and a new managing director now settling in, all the key components are in place.

 

In fact Steve Nicol, the company’s managing director is new to the role only. He’s actually played a key role in the development of Barruecopardo from concept to project poised for development as the key man on the ground in Spain. The passing of Kerr Anderson may have elevated Steve into his current role at an unexpected time, but the succession is logical. Steve has all the local relationships in hand, knows the project back to front and lives in Spain. If anyone can push this project forward and into production, he can. The most recent news underlines that Ormonde is now moving into a new, more aggressive phase.

 

Within the last couple of days the company has announced progress on the acquisition of the land required for the project, the completion of process flow diagrams, the signing of an electrical connection contract, the posting of an environmental bond, and the commencement of a drilling campaign aimed at establishing the viability of mining once the open pit is mined out. “Ormonde is on its way to becoming a tungsten producer,” says Nicol unequivocally. “The project is moving forward on time and on budget.”

 

Construction is scheduled to get underway early in 2016 with open pit mining likely to commence at the end of the same year. It’s an ambitious target, but one that Ormonde has long been working towards. The plan is to produce around 260,000 metric tonne units of tungsten trioxide (WO3) per year over an initial nine year mine life. It’s a fairly simple operation that will use experienced and local mine contractors under the day-to-day supervision of the Ormonde management team. The key to it all, says Nicol, is that the ore is amenable to simple gravity processing. “You only need to crush the ore to 5mm,” he says. “You don’t have to pulverise the rock down to powder. That makes for higher recoveries and sets this project apart from every other project.” That’s important because the tungsten price, in line with most other commodities, has been weaker of late. But the Barruecopardo product comes in right at the lowest end of the cost curve in tungsten, at US$113.90 per metric tonne unit.

 

The current price is just shy of US$200, so there’s still plenty of margin on offer for Ormonde here. Not so other companies in the space like North American Tungsten, which is currently restructuring under Canada’s Creditors Arrangement Act and laying off staff. “It’s a great time to be building a project,” says Nicol.

 

Less competitive projects are coming out of production while a select few new, lower cost entrants like Wolf Minerals (LON:WLFE) and Ormonde bring on new projects that are geared to a lower pricing environment. But, as always, the situation is a little more nuanced than that. 

 

China, which has historically accounted for the majority of the world’s tungsten supply, has pared back production. “The supply coming out of China is not going up any more,” says Nicol. “Their mines are becoming higher cost, dropping in grade and getting deeper. Many of their existing mines are in the red.” That points to likely pressures on supply. Against that, tungsten demand has historically been correlated to global GDP which is forecast to rise by 3.3% next year according to the World Bank.

 

Growth in the sectors that consume the most tungsten, the automotive and aerospace industries, is expected to grow by around 5%. It all points to a recovery in the tungsten price that could start to show through just as Ormonde is delivering its first production into the market. So, with an ongoing exploration programme designed to secure the longer-term future of Barruecopardo already underway, and with the support of joint venture partner Oaktree, the outlook for Ormonde seems very positive.

Watch this space for further updates.

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Michael Masterman, chairman of junior tungsten miner W Resources (LON:WRES), says the firm has two exceptional tungsten mines which have the potential to make very good returns for shareholders.

 

At the Régua project in northern Portugal, indicated resources now stand at 3.76 million tonnes at 0.304% tungsten trioxide - a 76% increase on the previous figure of 2.14 million tonnes at  0.367% WO₃ from three years ago.

 

Meanwhile the company is forging ahead with its plans to produce first tungsten from La Parrilla in Spain later next year.

 

A mine study in June confirmed two phases of development - firstly, a fast track mine, using the existing concentrator plant from the tailings project to produce at a rate of 1,200-1,300 tonnes per annum and 110 tonnes of  tin concentrate from mid-2016.

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The China Syndrome

 

Tungsten has shown some of the same dynamics that other specialty metals have experienced over recent decades.

During the 1980s and the 1990s, China, with the world’s largest reserves and lowest cost of production, flooded the world market. This drove down the price of both APT and WO3 concentrates to below the production cost of most other producers. Amongst the distortions this produced was that APT prices, driven downwards by Chinese processors, were only marginally above the price of concentrates at about USD$50 per MTU.

The distressed price in the world market quickly drove many tungsten mines and APT producers in the Americas, Asia and Europe out of business and led to their closure. Moreover, outside of China, exploration and mine development programs were quickly abandoned.

However, the distressed market price for tungsten concentrates and its products began to change in 2003 and more markedly in 2004-2005 propelled by the rapid growth and emergence of the Chinese economy in the world marketplace. As in other metals the rapid growth of Chinese demand for tungsten products for its domestic market triggered a tightening of the availability outside of China which was coupled with the Chinese government’s policy curtailing mining projects and taxing the export of tungsten concentrates in order to conserve resources for future domestic needs. This led to a price surge in 2005 with the price of APT moving rapidly from below $80 to nearly $300 per metric tonne unit (MTU). This in turn sparked a recovery in Tungsten recycling, so the price stayed in the $250 range for the ensuing five years.

However, with recycling at its max (37% of global supply in 2010 according to the USGS) and demand for Tungsten still high, the APT price went on a tear upwards to the $460 range.

After that high-water mark the price has been on a slide, briefly rebounding at times on the way down but now down to the level less than half the 2011/2 highs.

Just as in Rare Earths and other specialty metals the Chinese government has indulged in curtailment of mining programs and was strongly “encouraging” downstream processing of concentrates to higher value added products such semi-finished and finished tungsten products.

Roskill’s latest Tungsten survey commented that they believed primary tungsten supply will continue to be dominated by Chinese mine production in the years to 2018. However, the share of global supply which China provides is forecast to fall from 80% in 2013 to 78% in 2018, caused by an increase in production from mining operations in Vietnam, Australia and Europe.

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W Resources (LSE:WRES) announced a significant increase in the contained tungsten within the JORC compliant mineral resource estimate at Régua in Northern Portugal.

 

The total resource tonnage increased by 22% to 5.46mt at a grade of 0.28% WO₃, up from 4.46mt, and notably the indicated resource tonnage increased by 76% to 3.76mt at 0.304% WO₃ (2012: 2.14mt @ 0.367% WO₃).

 

The updated resource model is based on thick high-grade sections of tungsten mineralisation at or near surface and will form the basis for mine planning and mine reserve estimation. The outcrop area drilled midyear has the potential for low cost high-grade open pit development.

 

The next step is now to complete the mine planning and reserve estimation process, which is targeted for the first quarter 2016. Metallurgical work has progressed well over the last quarter with good metal recoveries. A full update on the metallurgical programme and results will be provided in the next two months.

 

Michael Masterman, chair of W Resources, commented:

The drilling campaign at Régua exceeded our initial expectations and we are delighted that the work to date has resulted in this significant increase in the indicated resources at Régua. The results to date provide us with a strong basis for the next phase of mine planning as we move the project nearer to production.

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