10th Jul 2014 07:00
10 July 2014
W Resources Plc
("W" or the "Company")
Production Ramp-up at La Parrilla Tailings
Ramp-up on Schedule as Initial Tungsten Production Exceeds Grade Specifications
W Resources Plc (AIM:WRES), the tungsten, copper and gold production, exploration and development company with assets in Spain and Portugal is pleased to provide an update on its progress in ramping-up the new La Parrilla tungsten production facility.
By the end of June 2014, a total of 10 tonnes of concentrate was produced with consistent production rates achieving an average of 59% WO3, which is above the initial target product grade of 50%, and impurities are lower than target expectations.
Production ramp-up to 25 tonnes per month is currently on schedule and W expects this to be completed by October 2014. Normal optimisation and plant fine tuning continues with minor upgrades in pump and spiral capacity.
As a result, it is anticipated that the facility will move to 24/7 operation at the concentrate plant from the end of July and the team is confident based on current progress of reaching design capacity by October.
The inaugural shipment of tungsten is scheduled for later this month, which will deliver first cash flow from La Parrilla Tailings, and strong pricing has been achieved on this initial supply.
Demand from customers and market pricing remains strong and as previously announced, off-take agreements are progressing well with customers.
Michael Masterman, Chairman of W Resources commented: "We are very pleased with the ramp-up progress to date, in particular the ability to deliver tungsten concentrate at above our initial target specifications. It is also a credit to the team that we are on track with the ramp-up and to have now secured first shipment and revenue for the Company".
Enquiries:
W Resources Plc | Grant Thornton UK LLP |
Michael Masterman | Colin Aaronson / Melanie Frean / Jen Clarke |
T: +44 (0) 20 7193 7463 | T: +44 (0) 20 7383 5100 |
www.wresources.co.uk | |
SI Capital | Gable Communications |
Andy Thacker / Nick Emerson | Justine James |
T: +44 (0) 1483 413500 | T: +44 (0) 20 7193 7463 |
www.sicapital.co.uk | M: +44 (0) 7525 324431 |
About La Parrilla
The La Parrilla project site is situated in the Extremadura region of southwest Spain, in the Provinces of Caceres-Badajoz, approximately 310 km southwest of Madrid. The site is accessed directly from the highway along a 3 km asphalt road and is serviced by electricity and water. The project comprises a tungsten mine and a tungsten tailings project. The historic mine resource estimated by SRK in 2008 is 36.0 million tonnes at 0.09% WO3, making it one of the largest tungsten deposits in the western world.
Annual plant feed will be c330,000 tonnes and annual production is anticipated to be 28,000 MTU Tungsten (W) and 26 tonnes Tin (Sn), which will deliver over €7million per annum in revenue at current tungsten and tin prices.
Technical information in this report and on the W website has been prepared in accordance with the JORC Code and approved for inclusion by Mr Fernando de la Fuente, who is a "qualified person" in respect of the AIM Rules for Companies with over 39 years' experience in the Exploration and Mining Geology industry. Mr de la Fuente holds a B.Sc. in Geology and a MSc in Geology from the University of Granada in Spain. He is also a member of the Spanish College of Geologists (Number 49), the Spanish Society of Mineralogy, founder member of the Spanish Society of Geology, member of the Spanish Association of Applied Geology to Mineral Deposits, member of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration, Inc., member of PDAC.
Related Shares:
WRES.L