Top10 Tungsten Mine Projects Outside China IV: McTung Project

The McTung Project is the largest tungsten resource project in Canada and one of the top 10 tungsten mine projects outside China. It is an open-pit tungsten mine located in the Selwyn Mountains of eastern Yukon, Canada, on its border with the Northwest Territories, about 390km northeast of Whitehorse and about 790km west-northwest. It belongs to the skarn scheelite deposit with a large scale and high grade. The mine is one of the largest tungsten ore known but undeveloped in the world.

According to the feasibility study report of McTung Tungsten Mine in 2009, it is inferred that the mine resources are 33 million tons, the average grade of tungsten trioxide is 0.88%; the underground mineable stone reserves are 8.5 million tons, the average grade of tungsten trioxide is 1.082%, and the average grade of tungsten trioxide is 0.88%. The reserves are 91,700 tons.

It is estimated that the service life of underground mining in mines is 11.2 years, and the service life of open-pit mining may be extended to 17 years. North American Tungsten Corporation estimated the capital cost of the mine's construction to be approximately 400 million Canadian dollars, including the capital cost of 356.5 million Canadian dollars and the contingent expenses of 45.6 million Canadian dollars.

In 1962, Amax geologist James Allan first discovered the McTung Tungsten Deposit (called MacMillan Pass, MacMillan at the time). From 1963 to 1980, Amax carried out a series of drilling and sampling activities, and completed geological surveying and mapping and magnetometer measurement.

In 1985, the decline in international tungsten prices caused the stagnation of Canadian tungsten mine projects, including the McTung Project. In 1986, Amax sold McTung Tungsten Mine. After that, in October 1997, North American Tungsten Company acquired two tungsten mines and restarted the environmental research and mining license application of McTung Tungsten Mine.

In February 2009 the North American Tungsten Corporation Ltd. announced the results of the feasibility study for its 100% owned Mactung Project in the Yukon Territory. Wardrop Engineering Inc. provided the principal engineering services for the project design and the capital and operating cost estimates. Geotechnical and environmental input was provided by EBA Engineering Consultants Ltd.

The Mactung Project completed the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment process in July 2014, and the Yukon government approved construction of the mine (pending mining and water license applications, and subject to a number of conditions) in September 2014. In November 2015, the Government of the Northwest Territories purchased the mineral deposit.

McTung Tungsten Mine is currently owned by the Canadian Northwest Territory Government. With the recovery of the tungsten market and the forecast of strong future growth, the local government is seeking investors to acquire and develop the tungsten mine project.

Mactung represents one of the largest tungsten resources in Canada, according to the previous plan of North American Tungsten Company, the McTung Mine outside China uses a combination of traditional deep-hole blasting and mechanized fill-and-dig mining methods. This one of the top ten tungsten mine projects outside China, McTung Project is forecast to run at 2,000 tonnes per day from an underground operation using conventional long hole plus cut and fill mining methods. The ore will be processed into both a premium gravity concentrate (67% WO₃) and a flotation concentrate (55% WO₃).

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