Rumble Resources (RTR.AX) has published the maiden resource estimate on its Western Queen tungsten project. The tungsten mineralization on the project occurs as a series of lodes subparallel to the high-grade gold resource (which contains 3.7 million tonnes of rock at an average grade of 3.1 g/t gold for just under 400,000 ounces).
The tungsten-focused resource contains 4.3 million tonnes at 0.31% WO3 for a total of 1.32 million mtu of tungsten. The majority of the tungsten resource is situated at the South Deposit, where the company has submitted the paperwork to get the approval for an open pit mining operation focusing on 2.3 million tonnes at 2.66 g/t gold.
Depending on the recovery rate and payability percentage, the tungsten could be a very meaningful by-product for the gold mining operation. Just to give you an idea; an 80% recovery rate and 78% payability would add about $77 in net recoverable value per tonne of rock based on an APT price of US$400/mtu.
Disclosure: The author has no position in Rumble Resources. This post is for educational purposes only; be mindful investing in junior mining stocks is risky and you may lose your entire investment if things go wrong. Please read the disclaimer.
