Western Australian’s Big Hill tungsten deposit may be in a position to supply a third of Hazelwood Resources’ requirements for a new ferrotungsten plant in Vietnam, an integrated prefeasibility study has shown.
Last month Hazelwood took a 60 per cent stake in the plant.
In the first phase the plant would have a capacity of 2.4-million kilograms of contained tungsten, in the form of 80% grade ferrotungsten, and would rely on feedstock from external sources. The first stage will be ready by the end of this year and the plant is scheduled to commence production early next year.
Stage two will double capacity to 4.8-million kilograms of contained tungsten and Big Hill is slated to provide around a third of the feedstock.
“The ferrotungsten business in Vietnam requires a long-term supply of high-purity feedstock and the development of Big Hill will allow us to increase the scale and quality of production,” said Hazelwood MD Terry Butler-Blaxell.
“We are currently conducting extensive pilot test work trials for process optimisation and product certification,” he added.
A definitive feasibility study of the Big Hill deposit will be completed by the second half of this year.
The Vietnam plant will be the largest producer of ferrotungsten outside China, capable of 25 per cent of global demand for the product.
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