W Resources issues Half Year Results for the Six Months Ended 30 June 2016
Michael Masterman, Chairman of W Resources, commented: “2016 has so far been a great year of transition for W. We have reached major milestones in Spain and Portugal with initial production at La Parrilla in 2016 and are on track for Régua in 2018, whilst increasing the prospectivity at the other three projects. The La Parrilla mine plan is progressing well, with production commencing in Q3 2016, and in parallel, we are continuing our discussions with regard to financing the mine at asset level and are encouraged by the response to date. These factors, combined with the Full Mine approval, see the FTM construction on-track ahead of the ramp-up to full production in 2017.
“At Régua, metallurgical results to date have been encouraging, and this, combined with process flowsheet updates will enable us to start work on the definition development study.”
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La Parrilla, Spain
- Mine production commenced ahead of schedule in Q3 2016.
- A package of financing and tungsten off-take arrangements agreed for the start-up of the La Parrilla Fast Track Mine (“FTM”) mine.
- JORC compliant resource increased to 51 million tonnes (“Mt”) at 0.096% with an indicated resource up from zero to 36 Mt which equates to 70% of the deposit.
- Optimised mine plan completed which delivers low strip ratio FTM mine pit. Metallurgical test programme and process engineering and preliminary engineering of the FTM crusher, jig and mill, and concentrator plant were also completed. These resulted in an increase in FTM production by 90% compared to the previous plan, to 2,500 tonnes per annum.
- Hard rock mining commenced with the first explosive blast covering the first two 10 metre benches in the FTM area in July.
Régua, Portugal
- Initial Mine development planning completed with an economic initial mine plan.
- An Environmental Impact Study completed in July and environmental approval for the trial mine is underway.
- Development is on track for production in 2018.
- A maiden JORC resource estimate of 3 Mt at 1.04 g/t gold (equating to 111,987 oz in contained gold) was completed in June 2016 on the São Martinho deposit.
- Drilling commenced in September 2016, to potentially double the current JORC resource estimate.
Financial
- A package of financing and tungsten off-take arrangements for the start-up of the La Parrilla FTM mine was secured with ICD Alloys and Metals LLP (“ICD Alloys”).
- Forward sale contract facility with ICD Alloys for USD1.2m, $200,000 of this facility has already been paid to W Resources to date.
- Capital placements totaling £850,000, used to progress development at the Régua project and the La Parrilla FTM (including the completion of the FTM mine optimisation plan and FTM plant engineering).
