A molybdenum and wolframite (tungsten) mining operation may soon materialise at Wolfram Camp, 90km south west of Cairns in north Queensland.
Queensland Ores Limited (QOL) is significantly encouraged by its drilling results obtained in its first six months of field operations.
Wolfram Camp, near the town of Dimbulah, is an historic mining field and QOL is earning an 85% interest in the area by spending $1.5m on exploration and completing a bankable feasibility study.
By late last year, QOL had completed 29 drill holes that confirmed economic grades of moly and tungsten over a strike-length of 500m.
The latest round of drill hole results indicated ‘gold equivalent’ grades in a range from 3g/t to a high of 106g/t with most of them at 10 or more g/t.
The calculation of a gold equivalent grade is based on recent commodity prices of $US223/mtu for tungsten, US$38.50/lb for moly and with gold at $US450/oz.
Molybdenum has increase about eight fold in price since 2003.
As steel additives they are in strong demand on the tails of the increased production of steel in China and India. Currently, there are significant supply and few deposits around the world that can reach production in the short term.
Subsequently QOL has announced it will commit $1m in a feasibility study at Wolfram Camp, which was mined intermittently from 1894 and was at times Australia’s largest wolframite producer with consistently high-grade concentrates.
Production ceased in the mid 1980s.
Since June drilling has confirmed the high grade of the mineralisation and the potential economic viability of the project.
The company is confident sufficient resources will be identified for a low cost mine.