(Alliance News) - W Resources PLC on Wednesday said its flagship La Parrilla project in Spain is expected to deliver maiden production sometime between September and November.
The company said the mine is in the final stages of construction and following delivery of the motor control centre, the team is completing the final electrical connections in the lead up to full commissioning of the large-scale concentrator plant.
W Resources has previously reported that the mine, crusher plant & jig and mill plant are already in operation and are geared up and ready to feed upgraded ore to the new concentrator plant.
On Wednesday, the company said ore fed to the jig and mill plant is being upgraded to higher grades, in line with expectations, and plant throughput has been tested at design capacity.
Upgraded pre-concentrate from the new jig and mill plant has been trucked to the existing La Parrilla concentrator plant and processed through to final tungsten and tin concentrate, W Resources said.
Although tungsten and tin concentrate stock has reached 19.8 tonnes in July, it is slightly lower than earlier guidance of 20 tonnes of tungsten concentrate, reflecting the constraints on efficient pre-concentrate movement between plants and, in particular, due to the limitations of the old concentrator plant which was designed for tailings and not ore feed.
"We are getting to the closing stages of construction at La Parrilla, with the mine, crusher & jig and mill plants commissioned and processing ore and the new large-scale concentrator plant set to start-up by September, following the completion of the important final commissioning stage," said Chair Michael Masterman.
"The team has delivered a fantastic mine, at low-cost and we very much look forward to first production from the new concentrator plant in the September quarter," added Masterman.
In addition, the AIM-listed company said it has signed an amendment agreement with BlackRock Financial Management Inc to capitalise the last two interest payments of the BlackRock term loan, which equates to USD1.3 million, which will be added to the final loan balance, further freeing up liquidity. The next quarterly interest payment will fall due in November.
Turning back to operations, at Regua, which is located in Portugal, development work continued to advance with road access construction underway and mining set to commence in the quarter beginning in December, W Resources said.
W Resources shares were trading 4.1% lower on Wednesday in London at 0.41 pence each.