King Island Scheelite Starts Tungsten Project

Australian Tasmanian tungsten producer King Island Scheelite will start its Dolphin tungsten project next month, 31 years after the mine was closed due to low prices. The company changed its name to Group 6 Metals, which previously described Dolphin as "one of the world's richest tungsten deposits".

With the achievement of Group 6 Metals' $88 million funding goal, the decision to mine was confirmed after shareholders voted to approve the plan at the recent annual meeting.

Group 6 Metals says it will soon provide a timetable on the redevelopment and restart of mining and processing of tungsten ore at Dolphin. It plans to export about 3,200 tonnes per annum of tungsten trioxide concentrate.

The company also noted its move to order long lead-time equipment earlier. in August, Group 6 Metals said it would address potential shipping delays and freight price increases by stepping up its ordering of long lead-time items needed for its processing plants. The company has also committed to paying deposits in advance in order to meet its projected schedule.

Executive Chairman Johann Jacobs thanked all those who have helped Dolphin prepare for the rebuild. He said, "The company has worked tirelessly to progress to this stage. The mine has one of the highest grade tungsten deposits in the western world and is very large."

The global market for tungsten is growing at about 4 percent per year, but China still dominates world supply, according to a recent report. Tungsten is the hardest known metal, with a melting point of 3,411 degrees Celsius.

In 1911, a prospector in search of tin discovered the present Dolphin tungsten project. The mining began in 1917, but was short-lived and closed in the mid-1920s. It was later resumed and then production increased significantly during the Second World War as the Australian Federal Government provided the equipment to extract the strategic metal.

Tungsten prices soared again during the Korean War, when the mine was operated by a publicly traded company, King Island Scheelite (1947) Ltd, which was taken over by the former Peko-Wallsend Corporation in 1969. The mine, like many other Western tungsten producers, was hit by the massive dumping of tungsten into the market by China in 1908 and was closed in 1990.

King Island is the most western large island in the Bass Strait, located between Victoria and Tasmania. The Dolphin Project is situated on the south east coast of the island, near the old mining town of Grassy.

• < Prev
• Next >