Apollo May Reopen the World’s Highest Grade Tungsten Mine

Apollo Minerals Limited (ASX:AON) that is looking to capitalise on a resurgent tungsten price set out to restart the world’s highest grade tungsten mine.

“We have the potential to reopen the world’s highest grade tungsten mine,” says Hugo Schumann, an Executive Director appointed in May, following stints at Berkeley Energia (LON:BKY) and Prairie Mining (ASX:PDZ). Both have made a considerable impact on their respective markets, and Schumann was an integral part of that, playing a significant role in financing and investor relations.

And he’s not kidding about the grades. Whereas a general global average for a tungsten mine might run at about 0.3%WO3, grades at Couflens run at an average of 1.5% and were as high as 2.5% WO3 when the mine closed around 40 years ago.

What’s more, there’s also gold potential on the property, with mineralisation from the gold coming into the system as part of a different geological event to that which brought in the tungsten.

To get an idea of how rich this mine might be, Schumann points out that even in the old, historic tailings, grades collected from rock samples were running at 0.5% WO3 and up to 8 grams per tonne gold.

But France hasn’t exactly been a welcome destination for mining over the past few decades, and in spite of this potential, not much forward motion has been evident until now.

But President Emmanuel Macron is keen to get mining in France kick-started again, and Couflens fits in nicely.

The company has already digitised data from over 650 historic drillholes in order to estimate a tungsten resource, and is now beginning to get the underground area itself back into some sort of working order, with the ongoing restoration of power, ventilation and cabliong.

Drilling is planned in due course, and an application to undertake an airborne geophysics survey has been made to the French authorities. 

In the meantime, results from sampling both from Couflens and from Aurenere continue to highlight the prospectivity of the projects.

Results from the 2017 surface exploration programme at Couflens showed grades as high as 8.25% WO3, with associated gold at 24 grams per tonne, while recent samples at Aurenere showed grades as high as 33.9 grams gold and 2.03 WO3. The copmany has now applied for a drilling permit at Aurenere.

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