Junior tungsten producer Carbine Tungsten is hoping to restart the historic opencast operations at its Mount Carbine project, in Queensland, within the next 18 months.
MD Jim Morgan told Mining Weekly that the permitting process for the restart of the opencast mine, which was estimated to host a resource of some 47-million tons and a reserve of 18-million tons, had already started.
Carbine Tungsten was given environmental clearance last month to process hard rock stockpiled ore at the Mount Carbine project to progress the project and supplement production from the existing tailings treatment operation.
Morgan said a capital expenditure of some A$15-million would be required to construct a plant to process the 12- million tons of low-grade stockpiled ore, but added that most other infra- structure requirements, including power, water, a tailings dam facility and a large portion of civil works, were already on site.
The required funding for the new processing plant would likely be sourced from Japanese major Mitsubishi, which signed a memorandum of under- standing with the ASX-listed junior in February, outlining its intention to provide the funding.
Morgan noted that Carbine Tungsten was now in final discussions with Mitsubishi, noting that the Japanese major’s interest had also piqued the interest of other debt funders which were now looking to become involved in the project.
“Under the Mitsubishi investment, the plant would have a capacity of some 1.5-million tons a year, but we have a number of interested parties that are looking to increase the size of that plant and the extrac- tion rate,” he said.
During the stockpile project period, Carbine Tungsten would look to advance the permitting process for the openpit operation.
Pointing to the potential of the openpit operation, Morgan noted that considerable upside remained at the project area, with initial internal estimates placing a project life of some 20 to 30 years on the openpit operation.
“One of the key things about our project is its historical tungsten zone and area, and we have high hopes and good indications for quite a significant exploration potential very close to site,” Morgan said.