www.northamericantungsten.com
North American Tungsten Corporation Ltd. is the Western World's largest producer of tungsten concentrate, a strategic industrial metal required in a wide variety of products ranging from jet turbine engines and high-speed cutting tools to electronic circuitry and surgical instruments.
North American Tungsten's shares jump on MacTung Project feasibility results
MacTung is one of the world's largest known undeveloped high grade tungsten-skarn deposits, with an underground indicated mineral reserve of 8.2 million tonnes grading 1.09% WO3, an indicated resource of 33 million tonnes grading 0.88% WO3, and a inferred resource of 11.8 million tonnes grading 0.78% WO3.
The study, completed by Wardrop Engineering, considered a 2,000 tonnes per day underground mine with an initial mine life of eleven years. The underground mine will feed a surface facility that would produce both a premium gravity concentrate (67% W03) and a flotation concentrate (55% WO3). Recoveries are expected to be 81.7%.
In the first five years, the mine would produce approximately 752,000 metric tonne units (MTU’s) of Tungsten Trioxide (WO3) per annum at an operating cost of C$104/MTU.
The estimated capital cost for the project is C$402.1 million, including a C$45.6 million contingency budget, with a capital pack back of just 2.9 years based on a US$300/MTU WO3.
Wardrop stated that the pre-tax net present value of the MacTung project is C$277 million using an 8% discount rate, but this is only based on the 11 year mine life. North American Tungsten added that the project could be extended by a further 17 years if it decides to exploit the lower grade near surface tungsten via an open pit.
The Company is projecting that construction will start in the second quarter of 2010 and require 27 months to complete.




















