Last year, we posted that Tungsten West Ltd had bought the Drakelands tungsten and tin mine at Hemerdon near Plymouth for £2.8 million, with the hope of restarting production.
The mine shut in 2018 after operator Wolf Minerals ceased trading, having failed to produce enough metal and having lost £100 million in just three years.
Tungsten West thinks it can do better. Tungsten West "will spend £30-£40 million" on reopening the mine, and hopes "to become one of the biggest producers of tungsten concentrate outside China." It reckons the resource at Hemerdon represents the "World’s 4th largest Tungsten resource with the potential to become the world's largest".
We have completed initial test work and are now conducting a feasibility study, which is expected to be completed this year or by the first quarter of 2021. We expect to get financed off the back of the feasibility study, with a rebuild time of six months.
It seems to be pinning its hopes on a new processing route, using X-ray transmission ore sorting:
The additional ore sorting step will significantly reduce downstream processing costs, and feed into the concentrator plant, leading to a much cleaner and higher-grade ore.
TOMRA's virtual XRT ore sorting testing solution is catching on, with material from Tungsten West's Hemerdon tungsten-tin project in the UK being the subject of one of the first trials | https://t.co/mrPH3itUE8 @TOMRAMining #TungstenWest #MPHMineralsConsultancy #oresorting #XRT pic.twitter.com/7MMqaXw7CT— International Mining (@im_mining) June 10, 2020
This week, application DCC/4191/2020 was approved by Devon County Council.
Condition 3 of permission 9/42/49/0542/85/3 allows for the continued winning and working of tungsten and tin and disposal of mineral waste at Drakelands until 5 June 2036.
