TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Almonty Industries Inc. (TSX-V:AII) (“Almonty”) announces that it has received the final surface permit in respect of its Sangdong Mine that now enables it to begin construction of the processing plant and the road and river diversion. The project is now fully permitted and the EPC contract expected to be signed within the next 4 weeks.
Almonty also announces that it has exercised its option on the Valtreixal Project in Spain and now owns 100% of the project. Almonty acquired the remaining 49% through a series of payments to Siemcalsa that totalled Euro 1.5 million, having negotiated a Euro 750,000 reduction on the final price. Almonty now owns 100% of the Valtreixal Project and continues to work on project development with a view to being in a position to bring the project on-line when market conditions warrant.
Almonty’s Chairman, President and CEO Lewis Black said:
“Obtaining the final permits ahead of schedule will enable Almonty to begin construction of the Sangdong mine as soon as funding has been finalized. We continue to work with our banks and an industry participant on the final funding package for the build-out of Sangdong and will update the market once the agreements have been finalized. We are still anticipating a commission date of Q1 2018.
Acquiring control of 100% of the Valtreixal Project further cements Almonty’s position as the leading producer of tungsten concentrate outside of China. We anticipate that the Valtreixal Project will have a lower cost of production than that of our Los Santos Mine which already operates at a lower cost than any non-by-product western tungsten mine, enabling Almonty to benefit further from a recovering market demand for tungsten concentrate. We are currently in the permitting stage and anticipate receiving all necessary approvals in calendar 2017.
We also continue to discuss with our customers an expansion of our current fixed priced contracts for 2017, as we believe current industry contract concentrate pricing as priced off spot APT, to be completely artificial given the appreciation we have seen in other industrial metals along with that of tungsten scrap, used alongside concentrate, which is pricing some 30% above concentrate pricing and is valued at the same price as APT, the downstream product.”
About Almonty
The principal business of Toronto, Canada-based Almonty Industries Inc. is the mining, processing and shipping of tungsten concentrate from its Los Santos Mine in western Spain, its Wolfram Camp Mine in north Queensland, Australia and its Panasqueira mine in Portugal as well as the development of the Sangdong tungsten mine in Gangwon Province, Korea and the Valtreixal tin/tungsten project in north western Spain. The Los Santos Mine was acquired by Almonty in September 2011 and is located approximately 50 kilometres from Salamanca in western Spain and produces tungsten concentrate. The Wolfram Camp Mine was acquired by Almonty in September 2014 and is located approximately 130 kilometres west of Cairns in northern Queensland, Australia and has produced tungsten and molybdenum concentrate, although the Wolfram Camp Mine is not currently producing due to ongoing refurbishment of the processing plant. The Panasqueira mine, which has been in production since 1896, is located approximately 260 kilometres northeast of Lisbon, Portugal, was acquired in January 2016 and produces tungsten concentrate. The Sangdong mine, which was historically one of the largest tungsten mines in the world and one of the few long-life, high-grade tungsten deposits outside of China, was acquired in September 2015 through the acquisition of a 100% interest in Woulfe Mining Corp. Almonty owns 100% of the Valtreixal tin-tungsten project in north-western Spain. Further information about Almonty’s activities may be found at www.almonty.com and under Almonty’s profile at www.sedar.com.
