Ormonde Mining’s Barruecopardo project set to begin supplying tungsten by year end
August 8, 2018
The process plant under development at Barruecopardo in July 2018 (Courtesy Ormonde Mining plc)
Ormonde Mining plc, headquartered in the Republic of Ireland, is expected to begin supplying tungsten to the market from its new Barruecopardo Tungsten Project mine in Salamanca, Spain, by the end of 2018.
An update from the company in June stated that initial production at Barruecopardo is expected to commence toward the close of 2018, followed by a gradual increase in production levels over the early months of 2019.
The company stated that prices for ammonium paratungstate (APT) have risen during 2017 and strengthened further in 2018 to a current level of $350-354 per metric tonne unit (mtu), and expressed its belief that demand will remain strong as the Barruecopardo readies to enter the market.
The initial nine-year open pit mine is expected to produce 260,000 mtu of tungsten trioxide. The project is funded through a $99.7 million funding package agreed with Oaktree Capital Management in 2015.
In Ormonde’s June update, Michael Donoghue, Chairman and Interim Managing Director, commented, “It is pleasing to be in a position to report a very successful year, with the decision taken in mid-2017 to advance the project into an accelerated construction and implementation phase validated by the significant increases in tungsten prices seen since that time.”
