MisesWell, of course, events in the 60's are 50 years out of...

Mises

Well, of course, events in the 60's are 50 years out of date. Doh? The point I am trying to make relates to representative sampling and met testwork. Skarns are mineralogically complex and any DFS would certainly deal with that. Initial results from testwork need to be added to of course.

The reference to the early experience with the Renison tin concentrator was that it was inefficient in processing the Federal orebodies, which was the intention in developing the mine in the 60's. Of course this debacle wouldn't happen now would it??? Case in point is Ravensthorpe.

I doubt that tin metallurgy has moved on that much as you assert, perhaps with equipment and process control. The Renison tin concentrator in the 80's had all sorts of gravity equipment, including spirals, HMS - as well as flotation, carbonate acid leach. To quote from Metals X, Feb 2008 - "The Renison tin concentrator has a nominal capacity of 700,000tpa. Having operated for over 40 years
continuously, there have been several phases of new technology integrated into the plant, usually as add-ons
and process revisions modified on the run. In the two years that Metals X has held the project on care &
maintenance there has been for the first time, a significant review of the entire metallurgical process and an opportunity to redefine the flowsheet and improve efficiency and ore recoveries without operational pressures.

Metals X will re-start the project with a flowsheet that maximises the efficiency of the plant and incorporates
additional new technology and advances in process control and ultra-fine gravity concentration technology. In
addition, in recent years, coincident with increasing depth, particularly in the southern part of the mine,
significant copper mineralisation occurs on its own and co-incident with the tin lodes. In response to this, and
with cognisance of significantly higher copper prices which are at an all time high, Metals X will operate a
copper concentrator sub-circuit within the plant to recover a copper concentrate as a co-product."

What improvements have there been in tungsten metallurgy?

As I said in an earlier post I am not a metallurgist but I have been in many metal mining operations where the process design folks got it wrong to varying degrees because there were many untested assumptions re processing.

Have a nice day!