From the australian last MondayVital signs for veteran MINING...

From the australian last Monday

Vital signs for veteran

MINING veteran Bill Ryan is back on deck after heart surgery and it was a big week for the companies he chairs.

First, his Vital Metals (VML) agreed to Aragon Resources (AAG) injecting $936,250 through a placement and a convertible note to form a tungsten alliance, enough money to get the former's Watershed deposit moving.

The rationale of this was not immediately apparent, because Aragon doesn't have any tungsten. But the company is 48 per cent controlled by Metals X (MLX), Australia's largest tin producer, and clearly its principals -- Peter Cook and Peter Newton -- are interested in expanding into tungsten.

The play gets even more interesting when you remember that Metals X in February signed a deal with Icon Resources (III), which has the Mt Carbine tungsten deposit just 25km from Watershed. That deal involved Icon buying the processing plant from MLX's now closed Collingwood tin mine, Icon issuing MLX a $3.75 million convertible note, MLX extending a loan of $896,200 and taking a placement of 5 million Icon shares.

Icon's original plan was to start treating the tailings at Mt Carbine, but now the thinking is that the plant could also be used to process ore from Watershed.

You would have to suspect that Cook and Newton have some longer-term corporate strategy in mind when it comes to these emerging tungsten producers.