Michael Masterman, Chairman of W Resources commented: “Régua is a high-grade, low-capital cost tungsten mine development with significant scope to increase the resource base, which is currently underway. The haulage and crushing services contract with FPMI allows W to advance Régua to development with efficient capital deployment.
“Our aim is to bring Régua into commercial production with sensible capital deployment leveraging contract mining, haulage and crushing contracts, thereby keeping the capital costs of development low. The FPMI contract is an important step in achieving this objective.”
· Contract signed for ore haulage and crushing at Régua with Francisco Pereira Marinho Imaos SA (“FPMI”)
· Competitive pricing of approximately US$40-45/mtu and low capital requirement of €50,000 for road establishment
W Resources PLC (LON:WRES), the tungsten, tin and gold mining company has today announced it has signed a contract with FPMI to provide low cost haulage and crushing services to its Régua tungsten mine in Northern Portugal.
Under the contract, once mining has commenced, ore from Régua will be hauled 27km to the existing FPMI crusher and crushed to a range of 5-10mm. As part of the service contract, FPMI will use the waste ore for rehabilitation of their existing quarry providing local environmental benefits. The estimated crushing and haulage cost is cUS$40-45/mtu and W will pay €50,000 to expand access roads for haulage.
The Régua mine and processing circuit comprises:
1. Near horizontal adit mining using contract mining and a combination of open stoping and room and pillar
2. Haulage of ore from mine face to FPMI crushing plant
3. Crushing of ore to 5-10 mm using the existing FPMI crusher
4. Processing the crushed ore through to tungsten concentrate using the existing La Parrilla Concentrator Plant which will be moved to Régua and upgraded later this year.
Golder Associates Pty Ltd, who completed the JORC Compliant Mineral Reserves and Resource Estimate in 2015 are working on the updated Reserves and Resource estimate and have advised it will be completed no later than early October 2019.