Brazil to Restart MPT Tungsten Mine Project

The tungsten mine developer Minerao Pará Tungstênio (MPT) in Brazil plans to build a large-scale operation of up to 1200 tonnes per year WO3 (950 tonnes per year contained W) at its project in Rio Maria, Pará state, with scope to increase capacity further depending on exploration results. MPT estimates a high-grade ore of 0.4-0.5% WO3 could be produced, which would make it one of the higher grade tungsten mines globally. The company is targeting start-ups for H2 2021. According to the foreign media report.

It is understood that Brazil hosts several small-scale tungsten concentrate mines. Between 2011 and 2019, the average tungsten production capacity of these mines was 175-500 tons/year. If stable operations can be achieved, the MPT project will push Brazil into the ranks of the world's leading suppliers of tungsten ore. In 2019, only five countries produced more than 1,000 tons of tungsten ore, namely China, Vietnam, Russia, North Korea, and Bolivia, respectively.

The project of Minerao Pará Tungstênio is one of the few potential mines to be put into production in the next few years. According to the analysis of the forecasting agency, the new capacity of the advanced tungsten mine project will not exceed 20,000 tons per year from 2021 to 2023. Several of these are based in Australia and Spain with capacity targets similar to MPT. Two very large-scale projects, in the form of Northcliff Resources’ Sisson project (5500 tons/year tungsten production capacity) and Almonty Korea Tungsten’s Sangdong project (3500 tons/year tungsten production capacity) are also aiming to come online during this timeframe.

MPT was established in 1979 and carried out several agricultural and animal husbandry activities in the Rio Maria region until 2007 when it consolidated its business in tungsten mine research and mining. Rio Maria is the southernmost city in the state of Pará in the north of northern Brazil. Mining is one of the city’s main sources of income, including gold mining, and mining of wolframite under Pará Tungsten’s operations.

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