Tungsten Mining (ASX:TGN) has completed a maiden inferred mineral resource estimate for its Hatches Creek Project in the Northern Territory.
The company reports an estimate of 12 million tonnes at 0.17% tungsten trioxide and 0.12% copper within tungsten domains, and an additional estimate of 6.1 million tonnes at 0.29% copper within copper domains.
Tungsten Mining, which has a market capitalisation of $72.77 million, believes the project is suitable for ore sorting, gravity, and magnetic separation following preliminary metallurgical studies that produced a tungsten concentrate grading at 50% tungsten trioxide.
Chairman Gary Lyons says these results exceeded the company’s target for tungsten and copper.
“The maiden JORC mineral resource represents a major step towards the company achieving its objective of the rapid evaluation and development of the Hatches Creek Project,” Lyons says.
As reported by Mining.com.au, the company hopes to aid the global demand for tungsten in semiconductor, electronics, and defence sectors, offering a local supply to limit export restrictions. China currently produces approximately 80% of the world’s tungsten supply.
“Drilling has defined 20,900 tonnes of tungsten trioxide and 32,100 tonnes of copper at a time of strengthening critical metal prices,” Lyons says.
Copper prices are expected to average US$9,570 a tonne in 2025 and rise to US$9,870 a tonne by 2030 in real terms. Global demand is projected to grow by an average 2.5% annually to reach 33.2 million tonnes by 2030, driven by investment in low emission technologies, data centres, and urbanisation.
Tungsten is a highly durable, grey-white metal with the highest melting point of all pure metals. A critical element, it is used in various industrial applications and commonly used in heavy metal alloys such as high-speed steel, from which cutting tools are manufactured.
It is also used in the so-called ‘superalloys’, to form wear-resistant coatings. Due to tungsten’s properties, the metal is difficult to process in its pure form, whereas tungsten trioxide is a stable, non-volatile compound that is much easier to handle and store and to use in chemical reactions or material synthesis.
Tungsten Mining is an exploration and development company, focusing on tungsten projects in Australia.
Write to Maddison Elliott at Mining.com.au
Images: Tungsten Mining
