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"In 2018, China produced 64,900t of tungsten contained in concentrate out of total global production of 80,100t"
To put wres into context, T2 at La Parrilla will be producing 1,400 tonnes of tungsten pa. That's 1.7% of global production at 2018 rates.
Adding in Regua and T3.5 takes us to around 2,700 tonnes pa which would have been 3.4% of global production.
That sounds like a mid-tier mining company to me.
Couldn't resist another top up this morning at these prices.
Head start typo lol!!:)
Sloppy,he's start then on production ,need an update soon imho
Most of the new tungsten mining projects coming up are yet to secure funding, but some are fully financed — two in Spain, and two in Russia, which hosts the largest tungsten mineral resources outside China. The first two are producer W Resources' 1,400 t/yr La Parilla mine, which started operating in late 2019 and shipped its first concentrate in early 2020, and the 2,060 t/yr Barrecuopardo mine, which also started running and shipping concentrate in late 2019, and is majority owned by investor Oaktree, to whom Ormonde Mining recently agreed to sell its 30pc stake.
In Russia, Wolfram is developing the 560 t/yr tungsten-tin Zabytoe deposit in the far east, also with mining having started in 2019 with first shipments in early 2020. Russian state strategic resources corporation Rostec is developing the other tungsten deposit, Tyrnyauz, in North Caucasus, as a 3,570 t/yr mine with a view to a 2023 start, and with an offtake agreement already signed with Wolfram for its tungsten and molybdenum ore.
Elsewhere, the 600 t/yr RHA mine in Zimbabwe has been expected to restart in mid 2020, Mironenko said. China's decision last year to ban imports of 32 kinds of scrap has released more tungsten scrap and residues for recycling outside China, which has eased the pressure on some of the primary raw material supply, he added. Chinese tungsten processors have also since invested in recycling projects outside the country, including in Malaysia.
While industrial scale mechanised mining dominates primary tungsten raw material supply, a minor portion of it comes from artisanal mines including in Bolivia in South America, Myanmar in southeast Asia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi in central Africa.
But the quality of artisanal concentrate varies and comes with impurities. Concentrate from the new industrial mines in developed countries also comes with higher impurities than competing Chinese raw materials, Gorbachev told delegates.
"As a consumer you can choose concentrate on price, quality or availability — and very rarely all three go together, usually you only get two. So if sourcing outside China, you have to compromise," Gorbachev said.
In terms of demand, the tungsten market is evolving but at a slower rate than predicted, he said. Transport accounts for 31pc of tungsten consumption, with other major uses including mining and construction (23pc), industrial applications (13pc) and defence (6pc).
The use is set to change within the transport segment as the move from internal combustion engine vehicles to electric vehicles (EVs) is set to lead to loss of market in transmission and engines and lower share of metalwork in body parts and therefore less tungsten use in tooling. Tungsten is set to find a new market in copper-tungsten connectors and potentially in niobium-tungsten oxide for lithium-ion batteries, an area currently in research.
https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news/2073602-exchina-tungsten-supply-faces-challenges?backToResults=true
The global tungsten industry has had mixed success in developing a supply chain outside China's dominant resource base, but new raw material sources are starting to change the picture, delegates heard at this week's Argus Metals Week conference in London.
China holds 65pc of known global tungsten resources and accounts for around 80pc of the raw material supply, meaning resources in other countries are underutilised. In 2018, China produced 64,900t of tungsten contained in concentrate out of total global production of 80,100t. Vietnam, the next largest producer, contributed a much smaller share with 4,800t.
When supply comes under pressure — as during the US-China trade war and the present logistical disruptions caused by the coronavirus outbreak — the rest of the world ramps up efforts to develop alternative supply, director of international business at Russia's main tungsten producer Wolfram, Denis Gorbachev, told the conference. But most of the projects that have failed have been in developed countries considered "low-risk" in terms of political stability, technology or infrastructure. The main risk for them has turned out to be high operating costs.
Shockwaves were sent through the industry in 2018 as the Cantung mine in Canada and Wolfram Camp in Australia were mothballed, UK and Russia-based firm AVAS Trading general manager Fedor Mironenko said. This was followed by the failure of the Hemerdon mine in the UK. But a number of new projects in Australia could see the region take a larger share of market supply before the end of this decade, he suggested, although they are yet to secure financing.
Projects outside China face a number of hurdles, including remoteness of access and complex logistics, availability of supply of power, water, chemicals and labour, and political, ecological and technological risks.
The Nui Phao project in Vietnam is a success story. It has benefited from low costs, but the 20pc export duty on concentrates has meant it could not be purely a raw material supplier and development of downstream processing in Vietnam has also resulted in the country becoming an importer of tungsten concentrate. Another major development coming up, also in Asia, is the 3,600 t/yr Sangdong project in South Korea, expected to start production next year, for which its owner Almonty Industries recently secured $76mn financing and signed a long-term offtake agreement with Global Tungsten and Powders Corp.