Tungsten West Makes EPCM Progress at Hemerdon Tungsten-Tin Project

Tungsten West has appointed Fairport Engineering Ltd. as the engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) contractor for its Hemerdon tungsten-tin project in the U.K. The company will also soon receive seven X-ray Transport (XRT)-based ore sorters from TOMRA.

Since its successful listing on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange, the company has been advancing Hemerdon, one of the most advanced mining projects in England, which is expected to become a major global supplier of tungsten and tin in the future.

Hemerdon tungsten-tin project is the third-largest tungsten resource in the world and a former producing mine that operated from 2015-2018. The company purchased the Hemerdon mine in 2019 and has since completed a bankable feasibility study demonstrating massive reserves of approximately 63.3 Mt of tungsten and 0.03% tin, as well as 37.4 Mt of saleable aggregates. The company estimates the current life of mine at 18.5 years, with the opportunity to extend through future investment.

With the exception of the ore sorter, the company said the rest of the long-term project has been ordered and is scheduled to be delivered within the company's schedule, and the company plans to restart mining this year.

The upgrade and refurbishment of Hemerdon's existing processing plant are centered around optimizing the existing concentrator route and introducing new crushing and screening lines that will then be fed into a new XRT ore sorting stage. According to the company, these upgrades will streamline processing, minimize plant downtime and improve recovery rates.

After extensive test work, Tungsten West commissioned TOMRA to supply the seven units required to handle the mine operations. This included six on-call units and one standby unit. The order and deposit for these units were placed in 2021 and the units have now been shipped to the UK pending final transfer to Hemerdon.

On top of this, the company has ordered six new screens and 11 vibratory disc feeders from Vibramech in South Africa at a fixed price, which are expected to be delivered in the June 2022 quarter. These units will replace the existing large screens that were causing low-frequency problems and were a major factor in the plant shutdown at Wolf Minerals (the previous owner of Hemerdon).

Max Denning, CEO of Tungsten West, said, "We are very pleased with the progress at the site, especially with the addition of Fairport Engineering to carry out the detailed design and construction of the project. We look forward to working with Fairport to restart full production at Hemerdon tungsten-tin project with the introduction of the XRT ore sorting and upgraded processing equipment and to significantly improve the processing route. The company has assembled a strong project and operations team and we are confident in our progress."

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