Tungsten in fast charging EV batteries, page-38

Here is another article written by Barry Fitzgerald who clearly likes to progress made by EQR at both Mt Carbine and Barruecopardo

EQ Resources (ASX:EQR):Australia has an unheralded national champion in the critical/strategic metals space - EQ Resources (ASX:EQR).Its focus is not lithium, nickel, tin, manganese, copper or any of the other metals that governments around the world have on their list of the critical/strategic metals need for global decarbonisation through electrification.EQ’s focus is tungsten, a metal that has been around for a couple of hundred years and which has more uses than in the defence, aerospace, oil & gas and other industries than can be listed here.Its many uses stem from it having the highest melting point of all metals and a hardness second only to diamonds. So it is critical all right.It is also strategic because about 90% of global production comes from our friends in China, Russia and North Korea. If supply was cut off overnight, the rest of the world would run out of the stuff inside of two months.Surprisingly though, it is a small market in volume terms. But it is a market that suits EQ nicely from its Mt Carbine operation near the well-known mining town of Port Douglas in Queensland, and the recently added Barruecopardo mine in Spain.Combined, the two operations rank EQ as the biggest non-Chinese supplier of tungsten, making it a national champion in the metal, as suggested above.Mt Carbine is a re-restart of a previous operation, with the re-start initially based on the re-treatment of low grade tailings. Recently it started mining higher-grade material from the open-pit after it was dewatered.EQ’s success at Mt Carbine with an ore sorting technology has given it street cred in the industry, so much so that Barruecopardo’s previous owner, the global investment manager Oaktree, sought out EQ to take over the operation for a nominal sum and the assumption of debt which was largely funded by Oaktree taking up a $25 million placement in EQ at a premium to the market.EQ has got cracking on introducing its ore sorting expertise at Barruecopardo and early signs are good that the previously troubled operation can be turned around.The stock last traded at 6.7c for a market cap of about $100 million. Veteran mining analyst at Morgans, Chris Brown, has been following the EQ story and values it at 16c a share.He then discounts that by 20% to arrive at a target price of 13c a share.