tungsten drought

WHICH is very timely. Another tungsten up and comer, Vital Metals, commissioned independent metal marketing company GBRM to assess the tungsten market.

Since a mine was reopened in Canada in 2005, no new significant production has come on the market and none is likely until 2009, the report says. Yet China's increased demand has been running at 15 per cent a year since 2002, and that country is limiting exports from its mines.

Ammonium paratungstate, the form of tungsten after chemical processing of concentrates, is fetching up to $US25,000 a tonne and is heading towards $US30,000/tonne.

Other tungsten plays to watch (apart from Hazelwood) include Kasbah Resources with a tin-tungsten project in Morocco; Hawk Resources, which plans to start work at Callie Soak in Western Australia once it gets the exploration licence; Paradigm Metals, which now has an inferred resource at the White Rock project; and Minemakers, which said earlier this month its earlier statement of tungsten grades in Tasmania had erred on the down side