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Cantung mine, Canada

7th July 2017

By: Thabi Shomolekae

Creamer Media Senior Writer

     

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Name: Cantung mine.

Location: Cantung mine is located in Nahanni, in the western Northwest Territories of Canada, about 300 km north-east of Watson lake, near the Yukon border.

Holding and Controlling Company: North American Tungsten Corporation Limited (NATCL).

Brief Description: Cantung mine is one of the largest operating tungsten mines outside of China. The mine comprises seasonally operated openpit and underground operations, which extract ore from a scheelite-chalcopyrite-bearing skarn.

Brief History: While exploring for copper in 1954, prospectors discovered the Cantung mine tungsten deposit. The Canada Tungsten Mining Corporation was established in 1959 to acquire and develop the property. The mine started with production from an openpit in 1962. Between 1963 and 1966, production was suspended, owing to the low tungsten prices and destruction of the mill by fire.

Construction of a new mill was completed in 1967 and the capacity increased in 1969. Drilling discovered the Ezone in 1971 and the mill began processing the underground ore in 1974.

Amax Incorporated consolidated ownership of the Cantung mine in 1985 and transferred all tungsten assets to Canada Tungsten Mining Corporation and retained majority control. Aur Resources bought Amax’s controlling interest in 1995 and merged with Canada Tungsten in 1996. NATCL bought the mine from Aur in 1997 and reopened the mine in December 2001.

The NATCL was placed under the protection of the Companies Creditors Arrangement Act and the mine was closed. NATCL completed a plan of arrangement to deal with the creditors in November 2004, allowing for planning for reopening the mine to start. Preparatory work for the reopening began in July 2005, and production resumed in late September 2005.

Operations at the mine in October 2009 were again suspended with production resuming in and remaining in continuous operation to the present day.

Products: Tungsten.

Geology/Mineralisation: Cantung is situated on the eastern margin of the Selwyn basin. The region consists of deep-sea sedimentary facies rocks, black shale, siltstone, chert and minor carbonate.

The main historic scheelite skarn orebodies, the openpit and E-zone are spatially located within the ore limestone unit on the upper and lower limbs respectively, of a recumbent anticline on the west side of the Flat river syncline. Historically, the major scheelite orebody mined from underground was the Ezone orebody.

Since reopening in 2010, the mine has expanded the known extent of the scheelite ore horizon down dip along the lower limb of the recumbent anticline to the south and to the west, and along the upper limb to the west.

These expanded areas include the west extension, the Amber zone and below 3 700 elevation level along the lower limb of the fold and the upper west extension along the upper limb of the fold. The underground ore zones extend 1.33 km along strike and 0.36 km down dip along the lower limb, with some interruption from intrusive sills and dikes, and 0.06 km up dip from the fold hinge along the upper limb.

Reserves: Total probable reserves as at July 31, 2014, were estimated at 1.82-million tons grading 0.81% tungsten (WO3).

Resource: Total indicated resources as at July 31, 2014, were estimated at 3.84-million tons grading 0.94% WO3.

Total inferred resources as at July 31, 2014, were estimated at 1.37-million tons grading 0.8% WO3.

Mining Method: Underground and openpit.

Major Infrastructure and Equipment: The site is supplied with electric power from a powerhouse equipped with diesel generators. Water is sourced from the Flat river and is used as potable and process water. Diesel fuel from the main tanks is delivered to the powerhouse and roaster by gravity through a 5 cm-diameter pipeline, equipped with a number of control valves.

The Cantung operation is fully permitted and has the required tailings dam, administration, waste disposal and milling facilities in place.

Prospects:  Additional engineering and design work have been conducted for long-term tailings storage facilities that will provide an additional ten years of storage capacity for reprocessed tails and operations at the mine.

Contact: Head office.

Contact Details:
Tel 604 638 7440
Email natungsten@alvarezandmarsal.com
Website http://www.natungsten.com

Edited by Sheila Barradas
Creamer Media Research Coordinator & Senior Deputy Editor

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