Top10 Tungsten Mine Projects Outside China Ⅸ: Mittersill Mine

The Mittersill mine is a large tungsten mine located in Mittersill, in the State of Salzburg in western Austria, 30 kilometers South of Kitzbühel, and some 340 kilometers southwest of the capital, Vienna. It is the largest scheelite mine in Europe and one of the top ten tungsten mine projects outside China. It is currently working in accordance with the highest safety and environmental standards.

Mittersill represents the largest tungsten reserves in Austria, having estimated reserves of 6.1 million tonnes of ore grading 0.5% pure tungsten. The mine produces around 1,200 tonnes of tungsten per year. According to 2006 data, the estimated resource of Mittersill Mine is 6.1 million tons, the average grade of tungsten trioxide is 0.5%, and the resource of tungsten trioxide as 30,500 tons. The annual output of tungsten concentrate is about 1,200 tons.

The Mittersill mine is divided into the Ostfeld mining area in the east and the Westfeld pit mining area in the west (Westfeld) with the Ferber Valley as the boundary. In 1967, Dr. Hall from Munich discovered the outcrop of the mine for the first time. Exploration began in 1967, with production starting in an open-pit mine in the eastern field in 1976. Since 1986 only underground mining in the western field is performed.

According to the survey data in 1978, the ore reserves in the eastern open-pit mine of Mittersill Tungsten Mine were 1.6 million tons, with an average grade of tungsten trioxide of 0.75%; the ore reserves in the western underground mine area were 1.3 million tons, with an average grade of tungsten trioxide of 0.6-0.7%.

In fact, it was discovered in subsequent exploration and mining that the resource reserves of the eastern open-pit mining area are relatively small, and due to the bad weather, the open-pit mining activities can generally only be carried out from May to November. Therefore, since 1986, the production activities of the Mittersill Mine have been mainly concentrated in the underground operations in the western mining area, with an annual output of about 1,200 tons of tungsten concentrate.

From 1975 to 1986, a total of 2.5 million tons of ore were mined in the eastern open-pit mining area, with an average grade of tungsten trioxide of 0.7%. The peak annual output was 352,000 tons in 1980. From 1993 to 1995, the global tungsten price slump had a certain impact on the production activities of mines. However, due to stable purchasers, Mittersill Tungsten Mine has survived.

Wolfram Bergbau und Hütten (WBH) has been responsible for the operational activities of Mittersill Mine. In the second quarter of 2009, Sandvik acquired WBH to improve its industrial chain and strengthen the supply of tungsten raw materials from the tungsten mine. Sandvik is the world's leading enterprise in cemented carbide cutting tools and one of WBH's main customers.

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