I know you have all read similar articles many times before but it can't hurt posting them. This artice is about a TSX company with a small w mine in Peru. If you want the full article go here otherwise I cut out the gerenal tungsten vibe below.
Damn those sexy rare earths!
Tungsten in same boat as rare earths - Malaga By: Matthew Hill 5th July 2011
TORONTO (miningweekly.com) - Prices for tungsten are rising "almost weekly" and the metal finds itself in almost an identical economic situation to rare-earth elements, with burgeoning demand and shrinking exports from China, the biggest producer, Malaga chairperson and CEO Jean Martineau said on Tuesday.
The metal, also called wolfram, with the chemical symbol W, is mainly used to make wear-resistant abrasives and cutters for machinery in the automotive industry, and drill bits for oil exploration.
Martineau said that, as is the case with rare-earth elements, China flooded the market with cheap tungsten concentrate in 1980s and 1990s, leading to an oversupply and prices low enough to squeeze out nearly all non-Chinese production.
The result has been a global shortage, with China - which accounts for over 80% of production - restricting tungsten exports.
Martineau went on to note that, for the past few years, the shortfall in mined supply has been filled by recycling, but that this has now reached maximum capacity, while demand continues to grow at around 5% a year.
Over the past year, prices for what is the world's hardest metal - with a boiling temperature of 5 700 Celsius, the temperature at the sun's surface - have doubled to between $46 000/t and $48 500/t, and Martineau believed further increases are on the cards.
"The final consumers don't really mind about the tungsten price, they mind about where they're going to get it," he explained
"We know that for the next four years there is no new production coming on line."
Martineau told Mining Weekly Online in a telephone interview from Montreal that this meant the price for the metal will continue to climb.
"I think the tungsten price is going to continue going up... We still expect a significant increase in next 18 months to two years."
RARE EARTH COMPARISON
Martineau draws parallels between rare-earth elements and tungsten, given that there is a significant shortage of the metals, and China dominates production of both, and has been restricting exports.
A key difference is that rare earths are mainly used in new technologies, including smart phones, electric cars and wind turbines, making them "sexier", and attracting more headlines, he commented.
About 70% of tungsten goes into industrial applications, on the other hand, while only a small, but increasing, percentage goes into modern technologies such as the Apple's iPad touch-screen.
WLF Price at posting:
35.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
