PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Big Hill tungsten deposit in Western Australia could deliver one-third of Hazelwood Resources’ total feedstock requirements for a new ferrotungsten plant in Vietnam, an integrated prefeasibility study has showed.

In the first phase, the Vietnam plant would have a capacity of 2,4-million kilograms of contained tungsten, in the form of 80% grade ferrotungsten, and would rely on feedstock from external sources.

This stage of the ferrotungsten plant will be completed by the end of the year, and is scheduled to make its first sale by early 2011.

To proceed with stage two of the plant, which would double capacity to 4,8-million kilograms of contained tungsten, an additional source of feedstock would be required.

The development of the Big Hill deposit, at a total capital cost of A$111,6-million, would provide around one-third of the feedstock for the plant.

“The ferrotungsten business in Vietnam requires a long-term supply of high-purity feedstock and the development of Big Hill will allow us to increase the scale and quality of production,” said Hazelwood MD Terry Butler-Blaxell.

He noted that the value created by the downstream processing of ferrotungsten would allow the company to mine and process ore at Big Hill at low cutoff grades.

“We are currently conducting extensive pilot test work trials for process optimisation and product certification,” Butler-Blaxell said.

A definitive feasibility study of the Big Hill deposit was also currently under way, and would be completed by the second half of this year.

The new Vietnam plant will be the largest producer of ferrotungsten outside China, capable of fulfilling about 25% of global demand for the product.

Ferrotungsten is used in steels and alloys where hardness and heat resistance is required.