W Resources PLC (LON:WRES) Chairman Michael Masterman caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss their latest update on La Parrilla.
Q1: Michael, earlier you provided an update to the market for your tungsten project at La Parrilla in Spain stating that you’ve completed the first T2 blast. Can you explain for us the significance of this?
A1: It brings us back to focus on the ore at La Parrilla and the low cost mining of that.
So, we’ve had the first blast which will feed the T2 operations, T2 is 2 million tonnes of Run of Mine (ROM) feed and we’ll produce 2,500 tonnes of tungsten concentrate which if you translate that into today’s revenue, it’s about $36 million per annum.
Q2: So, what kind of volume will you actually be processing?
A2: What W Resources are doing now is were preparing the mine so that over the next couple of weeks and, with a truck and shovel operation, we can transfer the ore that we’ve just blasted to the ROM Pad, crush it through the new installed and fully operational crusher. We then use that feed to commission the new jig that we completed the construction of in April so that we can upgrade and effectively double the grade of the feed that we feed into the concentrator.
Q3: What’s next for W Resources?
A3: Key focus for the month of May is commence the mining which you can see if the release today and in a number of videos I think will be on various websites and also on LinkedIn and Twitter.
We’ll feed the ore to the crusher, feed the ore to the new jig and then we’ll process that ore through to tungsten concentrate and tin concentrate at our existing concentrator.
Because the grade will be higher, we’ll be able to increase the production from that concentrator to around about 20 tonnes a month about 30/35 tonnes a month and that’s from the existing concentrator.
Come June, as we’ve indicated, we’ll be able to complete construction of the large scale concentrator which has a capacity of 200 tonnes a month. We’ll commission that large scale concentrator from July onwards and we’ll take the production rates, by around about December, up to that 200 tonnes per month mark which is the design capacity of the system.
So, lots going on in May, lots going on in June and July and through the balance of the year.
