W Resources PLC (LON:WRES) Chairman Michael Masterman caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss the La Parrilla Tungsten project update, what’s involved in the first phase and the milestones shareholders should be looking out for
Q1: Good to see an update on the design and development planning for the La Parrilla Tungsten project, was the outcome what you expected?
A1: Well look, we’ve got a very good engineering and design team working on the project and they were able to design the project particularly the first two phases so that we can get into production for a low amount of capital, $16 million at 1,300 tonnes per annum of tungsten concentrate production and then quite quickly or very quickly for an even more modest sum of $6 million double capacity in what would be planned to be the second year of production. So that gives us enormous efficiencies in how we develop the mine and substantially improve the overall economics of the mine.
Q2: Can you outline in more detail what’s involved in the first phase as you head towards production later this year?
A2: From the point of view of the tungsten plant, we already have the infrastructure in place; power, water, roads, and we also have the concentrator in place, we ran that through T14 and T15 to produce tungsten from the tailings. To go into production, in terms of the first phase, 1,300 tonnes per annum, we need to add a crusher which we’ve got our foot on in Madrid, we need to add a jig and a mill which is a very well-known and robust technology that has delivered very very good results from our metallurgical testing and then new need to upgrade the concentrated that’s in place. So relatively small steps, it can be thought of as a brownfield, a low risk brownfield extension rather than a greenfield project.
Q3: What are the up and coming milestones for W Resources that shareholders should look out for longer term?
A3: There’s a lot of milestones building in the system, we’ve had some very good results on all manner of projects released last week but specifically La Parrilla. We’re finishing the mine plan, the mine plan is pretty critical for the grades and the production that we get from the facilities so the investors should expect an updated mine plan, they should expect an overall results from the development programme, including returns and cash flows, and they should expect the financing to be completed as we get all of those key building blocks in place.
