Michael Masterman, Chairman of W Resources LON:WRES commented: “It’s great to have secured these agreements for the initial start-up of the FTM mine in Q4 2016. The customer and equipment financing facilities enable us to move forward on this important phase of the project and allows us to start-up at low operating costs and with installed crushing capacity sized to the full 2,500 tungsten concentrate development.”
W Resources Plc (AIM:WRES), the tungsten, copper and gold, exploration and development company with assets in Spain and Portugal, has told DirectorsTalk about a package of financing and tungsten off-take arrangements for the start-up of the La Parrilla FTM mine, from ICD Alloys and Metals LLP
ICD Alloys and Metals has provided a forward sale contract facility for USD1.2m and $200,000 of this facility has been paid to W Resources to date. In addition, W Resources and ICD Alloys and Metals have reached a non-binding in principle agreement to provide equipment finance for the La Parrilla crusher at a value of USD2m and evaluate funding for the full project to 1.95mtpa / 2,500 tonnes of tungsten concentrate.
As part of the financing, tungsten sales will be contracted to one of the largest US tungsten processing companies.
Initial mining, plant commissioning and tungsten concentrate production and sales to customers are expected to commence in Q4 2016 using the existing on-site plant and facilities at an initial rate of 400tpa. Installation of a new crusher with the capacity to process the full 1.95mtpa / 2,500tpa production has been brought forward with this financing and is expected to be operational in early Q1 2017 with the remaining plant infrastructure on schedule for installation by mid-2017.
Finance discussions for provision of equipment finance or debt finance for the remaining two core La Parrilla plant packages, the Jig and Mill (EUR4.2m) and the concentrator plant (EUR2.2m), are advancing and W has agreed with ICD Alloys and Metals to explore options for equipment or JV investment finance for these packages and associated development in the next phase of discussions.
As announced on 27 July 2016, the first mine blast was completed on 26 July 2016 together with a 20 hole lateral extension RC drilling programme. Upgrade of the existing concentrator plant is advancing including the installation of tin production equipment for the purpose of boosting revenues and reducing unit operating costs (after tin credits). The price of tin is up 26% since January 2016 and is currently trading at over USD18,000 per tonne.
