Morning plonka
I never said production was "imminent" It was Scottm who said 3 years you are suggesting longer. Personally I think it could be years (Not 3), because unlike Scottm et aI, I just do not see a supply shortage in tungsten concentrate in the next few years, I will come back to why.
But what changes that time line is if Trump wants all American tungsten. They have 2 years until US DOD restriction on china tungsten come into effect. Which look very doable.
Guardian Metals is tiring to put itself in the prime spot for free cash, of course there are also others in the US, like the IMA Mine another past-producer who just raised cash. It’s also sitting on patented ground and is readily permittable for exploration. In the near-term, they hope to re-new the IMA Mine’s historic resources, add resource tonnes, and drive toward a mine restart.
As for the infrastructure at "
Tempiute Tungsten Mine and Mill" I will quote an other Oliver that Scootm is a supporter of. Oliver Friersen said
"Tempiute, being a significant tungsten producer as recently as the late 1980s, along with the extensive in-place infrastructure and its location almost entirely within patented, wholly owned claims, makes it an extremely attractive Project."And google It looks extensive to me.
As for
"Ore on the surface are tailing and some old stockpiles that were not processed back in the 80s." Yes but it Millions of t's just like MC and provides "for near term reprocessing"
Back to tungsten supply, in the year ahead (2025) there are a number of smaller supplies coming into market and the secondary market will all so continue to add in.
On the larger end
Masan production will be up on this year.
Bakuta will start to add significant supply in the next few months as they ramp up.
Sangdong will come on line by mid year and start there ramp up.
EQR is adding in more supply.
With all of these running the next year (2026) there will be an even bigger % increase in tungsten production and all have plans to increase production further in 2027.
Demand has been soft and we have 3 players looking to replace Masan as the largest non china supplier each able to add 50% to the western supply. That's a lot of extra tungsten, let alone if any of the list of hopeful can get going as well.
This is why I think there was a rush to exit by EQR shareholders with the first bit of decent volume in some time and why there is no institutional / funds knocking down the door.
(20min delay)