Company type | Public |
---|---|
TSX: AII | |
Industry | Mining |
Founded | 2011 |
Headquarters | Toronto, Canada |
Key people | Lewis Black, (CEO) Daniel D'Amato, (Director) Mark Trachuk, (Director) Dr. Thomas Guschlag, (Director) Mark Gelmon, (Director and CFO) Marion McGrath, (Corporate Secretary) |
Products | Tungsten, tin, copper and molybdenum concentrates |
Number of employees | 400 |
Website | http://www.almonty.com/ |
Almonty Industries is a global mining company focused on tungsten mining and exploration. Its primary operations are in Spain, Portugal, and South Korea. The company is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
The name Almonty Industries derives from the names of the fathers of two of the founders as a tribute to them. "Al" comes from Al D'Amato, father of Daniel D'Amato and Monty from Monty Black, father of Lewis Black. Some Almonty partners had contact with tungsten production and trading from other projects in Thailand. Later, in May 2005, Almonty acquired Panasqueira mine in Portugal on behalf[ clarification needed ] of Primary Metals Inc, [1] a company formerly listed on the TSX Venture Exchange with the ticker symbol "PMI.V", purchased by Sojitz Corporation in 2008. [2]
The company was formed in 2011 with the acquisition of Los Santos mine. It began trading on the TSX venture exchange on 28 September 2011. [3] In March 2013 the company acquired an option on 51% of the Valtreixal deposit in northern Spain. [4] In 2015 Almonty acquired Woulf Mining Corp. and its Sangdong project. [5] In early 2016 Almonty acquired Panasqueira mine from Sojitz Corporation of Japan. [6] In early 2017 Almonty received final permits for construction of its Sangdong mine and acquired the remainder of the Valtreixal project, thus gaining full ownership. [7]
Los Santos Mine is exploited through Daytal Resources Spain S.L. ("Daytal"), a wholly owned Spanish subsidiary of Almonty Industries Inc. It is located in the municipalities of Los Santos and Fuenterroble de Salvatierra in the province of Salamanca, about 180 km west of Madrid. [8]
The deposit was discovered by Billiton Española in 1979–1980 by targeted night use of ultra-violet lamps to disclose the presence of the tungsten mineral, scheelite (CaWO4) which fluoresces under ultraviolet light. After the discovery, a period of intense exploration activity began, including diamond drilling and some preliminary engineering. In the 1980s it decided to carry out a pre-feasibility study. By 1985, however, the prevailing price for tungsten of US$81/mtu, the project was considered non-viable. Later mining rights were acquired by the publicly owned company SIEMCALSA Archived 25 June 2017 at the Wayback Machine , which sold it to the Australian public company, Heemskirk Consolidated Limited that had commissioned the project[ clarification needed ] in June 2008.
The Los Santos deposit is a typical skarn-hosted scheelite deposit, where intrusion of granitoids into carbonate-rich sedimentary rocks has resulted in their replacement by calcosilicate or siliceous minerals, together with mineralisation. It forms from impure carbonates rich in iron (Fe) and contains pyroxene, scheelite, plagioclase and locally magnetite. The scheelite is generally fine-grained, less than 1mm in size, but individual crystals may exceed 1 cm.
The mine works the mineralized skarn layers in eight zones (Cortinas West, Cortinas East, Capa 4, Sector Central, Gapa G, Peña de Hierro, Santos West and Santos South) that defines individual open pits. The pits are usually exploited in sets of two or three to rationalize mine costs and homogenize plant feed characteristics. The exploitation methodology is by transfer, in which the waste from the active pits is used for environmental restoration of the exhausted pits.
The Mineral processing plant has an approximate capacity of 500,000 tons per year and works by gravimetry. It produces tungsten (scheelite) concentrates with 65% WO3 at an average of 100-140 ton per month. Since 2008, Los Santos has produced approximately 8,500 tons of tungsten concentrate, making it, in terms of production, the biggest tungsten mine in Spain, taking into consideration all historical producers. The tailings of the processing plant are dry-stacked for subsequent re-processing, as much of its contained mineralization is not extracted and in the future, with changes in plant design, will be reprocessed; then the final tailings will be dumped into the restoration of the last pit shell.
Exploration works followed in 1974–1986 and the first reference to the presence of tungsten dates from this time.
Almonty optioned the property between 2013 and the full acquisition in 2016. During this period a large amount of exploration and metallurgical tests were done by Almonty under its wholly owned subsidiary Valtreixal Resources. The deposit is about 8 km north of the border between Portugal and Spain in the municipality of Pedralba de la Praderia and 320 km NE of Madrid. [9]
Current resources are 2.82 million tons @ 0.25% tungsten trioxide (WO3) and 0.13% tin (Sn) in the indicated category and 15.42 Mt @ 0.08% WO3 + 0.12% Sn as inferred resources. Mineral reserves in the probable category are 2.55 Mt @ 0.25% WO3 and 0.12% Sn. This is enough for the 5-year initial open pit project with the 500,000 t per year capacity, while the push back of the open pit to the east is defined. The project will produce about 770 to 1,300 t of tungsten concentrates and about 500 to 620 t of tin concentrates per year.[ citation needed ]
Panasqueira is a tungsten mine that has been worked almost continuously for 130 years. In terms of accumulated production it is probably the second-biggest tungsten mine in the world. Based on reliable records for 1934 to 2016, 40 million tons of ore were extracted and 128,110 tons of WO3 concentrate produced, 6,576 tons of tin concentrates and 32,410 tons of copper concentrate. Its tungsten concentrate (wolframite) is a reference in the market, as its high grade has the fewest impurities commercially available in the market, usually receiving from the customers a premium for its quality. Aggregates for civil construction and minerals are also sold. The minerals of Panasqueira mine are famous for their size, perfection and rarity, including two that are only found in this deposit (panasqueiraite and wikt:thadeuite). [10]
The deposit is a sheeted vein system of great dimensions, and some authors consider it a world-class deposit. It stretches along three municipalities (Covilhã, Pampilhosa da Serra and Fundão) and so far has discovered two non-outcropping intrusive sources (one in Fundão and the other in Covilhã). During Sojitz Corporation management (2007–2015) deep drilling was performed to identify other mineralization sources (granite/greisen cupolas) with no result. Presently[ when? ] new exploration work is being performed southeast of the mine with the same objective. The exploitation zone actually active stretches in approximately 2,500m in length; 400m to 2,200m in width and at least 500m in depth. The mine is presently active in levels 1, 2 and 3. It extracts between 700,000 and 800,000 t of ore per year and produces between 100 and 120 t of tungsten concentrates per month and other byproducts. Tin is increasing in importance as exploitation zones progresses towards mixed tungsten-tin vein zones. Total reserves are enough for 2.5 years and resources for 30 years.
Tungsten mineralisation was discovered on the property in 1916, but the main Sangdong deposit was discovered in 1939–1940. The Sangdong Mine was operated during World War II by Sorim Resources Co. and from 1946 to 1949 under the jurisdiction of the United States military government office. The mine operated until 1992, with annual rates of production of up to 600,000 tons of ore. By the time it closed, the mine had been developed on twenty levels. Sangdong achieved an enormous importance and in some years, before the present boom in the South Korean economy, it represented more than half of total South Korean exports. POSCO, the 4th steel producing corporation of the world, which was born as a branch company of the former Sangdong mine corporation (KTMC), is presently doing the detail engineering to restart Sangdong Mine. [11] Historical production at Sangdong was enormous (94,470 t of WO3 recorded between 1952 and 1987) and it was probably the third-biggest tungsten producer in the world, only after Tyrnyauz in Russia and Panasqueira. It also produced relevant yearly amounts of molybdenum, bismuth and gold as byproducts.
The mine went through the 1980s and was closed in 1994 due to a decline in profitability due to the development and supply of tungsten mines in China. After the acquisition in 2015 by Almonty, the project was subject to reengineering and is now in the detail engineering phase, with financing closing in October 2020. [11] It is expected to open during the first half of 2022 with a capacity of 640,000 tons per year and will produce on average 4,000 tons of tungsten concentrate per year with bismuth and molybdenum as byproducts.[ clarification needed ]
The deposit is composed of:
The deposit is huge with high grade. The zones currently recognized have indicated resources of 8 million tons @ 0.51% WO3 and 50.6 million t @ 0.43% WO3 in Inferred resources. The reserves are only established in the zones where exploitation will start and are enough for 12 years of exploitation. [12]
Eldorado Gold Corporation is a Canadian company that owns and operates gold mines in Turkey, Greece and Canada. Since its merger with European Goldfields in 2011 the company has been pursuing the development of the Skouries mine, Olympias mine and Stratoni mine in Greece. The company previously developed and operated gold mines in China, Brazil and Mexico. Headquartered in Vancouver and listed on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges, Eldorado Gold has developed and operated assets from several merged companies HRC Developments Corporation, Afcan Mining Corporation, Sino Gold Mining, Brazauro Resources, Integra Gold, as well as European Goldfields.
The Pine Point Mine is located on the south shore of Great Slave Lake between Hay River to the west and Fort Resolution to the east, in the Northwest Territories of Canada. It produced lead and zinc ores from a Mississippi Valley Type deposit between 1964 and 1988. Most of the mining was done by open-pit methods. The town of Pine Point was built by the mining company, Cominco, and when the mine closed the town was abandoned and demolished.
Greisen is a highly altered granitic rock or pegmatite, usually composed predominantly of quartz and micas. Greisen is formed by self-generated alteration of a granite and is a class of moderate- to high-temperature magmatic-hydrothermal alteration related to the late-stage release of volatiles dissolved in a magma during the solidification of that magma.
Minas da Panasqueira or Mina da Panasqueira is the generic name for a set of mining operations between Cabeço do Pião and the village of Panasqueira, which has operated in a technically integrated and continuous manner practically since the discovery of ore there. Subsequently, it was agglomerated into a single administrative entity called Couto Mineiro da Panasqueira which had its last demarcation on 9 March 1971 and later on in the present C-18 Mining Concession. The mining facilities are currently centralized in the area of Barroca Grande – Aldeia de São Francisco de Assis (Covilhã) through which the current underground operation, ore extraction and processing facilities are accessed.
Burundi is a producer of columbium (niobium) and tantalum ore, tin ore, and tungsten ore, and some deposits of gold which are designated for export. Burundi has resources of copper, cobalt, nickel, feldspar, phosphate rock, quartzite, and rare reserves of uranium, and vanadium.
Lundin Mining Corporation is a Canadian company that owns and operates mines in Sweden, United States, Chile, Portugal and Brazil that produce base metals such as copper, zinc, and nickel. Headquartered in Toronto, the company was founded by Adolf Lundin and operated by Lukas Lundin. While it was incorporated to pursue an interest in a diamond mine in Brazil, the company re-structured and raised funds to develop the Storliden mine in Sweden. It purchased the Swedish Zinkgruvan Mine from Rio Tinto and then merged with Arcon International Resources for its Galmoy Mine in Ireland and with Eurozinc for its Neves-Corvo mine in Portugal. The company subsequently purchased and operated the Eagle mine, Candelaria mine, and Chapada mine.
Drakelands Mine, also known as Hemerdon Mine, Hemerdon Ball Mine or Hemerdon Bal Mine is a tungsten and tin mine. It is located 11 km northeast of Plymouth, near Plympton, in Devon, England. It lies to the north of the villages of Sparkwell and Hemerdon, and adjacent to the large china clay pits near Lee Moor. The mine had been out of operation since 1944, except for the brief operation of a trial mine in the 1980s. Work started to re-open it in 2014, but it ceased activities in 2018. It hosts the fourth largest tin-tungsten deposit in the world.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to mining:
SAG/SDAG Wismut was a uranium mining company in East Germany during the time of the Cold War. It produced a total of 230,400 tonnes of uranium between 1947 and 1990 and made East Germany the fourth largest producer of uranium ore in the world at the time. It was the largest single producer of uranium ore in the entire sphere of control of the USSR. In 1991 after German reunification it was transformed into the Wismut GmbH company, owned by the Federal Republic of Germany, which is now responsible for the restoration and environmental cleanup of the former mining and milling areas. The head office of SDAG Wismut / Wismut GmbH is in Chemnitz-Siegmar.
Bisie, divided into Mpama North and Mpama South deposits, is a tin deposit in the Walikale territory of the province of North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The mine was formerly an illegal source of an estimated 15,000 tons of tin, or 4% of global production. In early 2018 artisanal mining activity has stopped, and Alphamin Resources Corp., an exploration company, based in Mauritius, is leading an exploration of the site.
Adex Mining Inc. is a Toronto, Ontario, Canada-based mining exploration company engaged in the development of its wholly owned Mount Pleasant Mine property in Charlotte County, New Brunswick, Canada. According to the Government of Canada report, Mount Pleasant is "North America's largest tin deposit and the world's largest reserve of indium." The company's stock trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol ADE.
Mining in Bolivia has been a dominant feature of the Bolivian economy as well as Bolivian politics since 1557. Colonial era silver mining in Bolivia, particularly in Potosí, played a critical role in the Spanish Empire and the global economy. Tin mining supplanted silver by the twentieth century and the central element of Bolivian mining, and wealthy tin barons played an important role in national politics until they were marginalized by the industry's nationalization into the Bolivian Mining Corporation that followed the 1952 revolution. Bolivian miners played a critical part to the country's organized labor movement from the 1940s to the 1980s.
Mauritania's mineral sector was dominated by iron ore mining and beneficiation. Other mineral commodities produced in the country included cement, copper, gold, gypsum, petroleum, salt, and steel. The 'Ministère des Mines et de l’Industrie' was the Government agency responsible for enacting the Mining Code and for the coordination of all activities in the mining sector. The 'Direction des Mines et de la Géologie' was the entity responsible for promoting the mineral sector and for providing geologic and mining information to potential investors; the 'Direction des Hydrocarbures' was in charge of the development of the petroleum sector; and the 'Office Mauritanien des Recherches Géologiques' was the Government entity responsible for evaluating areas of mineral potential for exploration. The 'Société Nationale Industrielle et Minière (SNIM)' was responsible for iron ore production and benefciation.
The Mittersill mine (also known as Felbertal Mine) is a large mine located south of the Mittersill town, in the State of Salzburg in western Austria, 30 kilometres (19 mi) South of Kitzbühel and some 340 kilometres (210 mi) southwest of the capital, Vienna. Mittersill is the largest scheelite deposit in Europe, having in 2010 estimated reserves of 6.1 million tonnes of ore grading 0.5% pure tungsten. The mine produces around 500.000 t ore grading 0.3 %WO3, i.e., around 1,200 tonnes of WO3 per year (data from 2010 to 2017).
Thompson Creek Metals Company Inc. was a full cycle mining company with acquisition, exploration, development, and operation in North America. The corporate office was located in Denver, Colorado. The company primarily produced copper, gold, and molybdenum. Over its history, the Company evolved from being a major primary molybdenum producer to becoming a copper and gold mining company with the construction and development of the Mount Milligan mine and concentrator in British Columbia, Canada. Mount Milligan was Thompson Creek Metals principal operation and the company owned 100% of this property. The company also owned 100% of its Thompson Creek Mine in Idaho. Thompson Creek Metals owned 75% joint venture interest in two other properties, including its Endako Mine in British Columbia, and its Langeloth Metallurgical Facility (roaster) in Pennsylvania. Thompson Creek Metals had additional development projects, including the Berg property in British Columbia.
The El Indio Gold Belt is a mineral-rich region spanning the border between Chile and Argentina that contains large quantities of gold, silver and copper. On both sides of the border the belt is located within the Andes. The El Indio mine within the district was the first modern mine in Chile to produce gold as its main product. In Chile the main precious metal containing mineral is enargite. The El Indio belt is bordered in the north by another gold-silver mining district known as the Frontera District. Rodalquilarite, alunite and poughite are some of the minerals present in the area. The deposits of the belt formed during the Late Miocene period.
Wolf Minerals Limited was an ASX (WLF) and AIM (WLFE) listed specialty metals company focused on developing the Drakelands Mine tungsten and tin project, in Devon in the UK.
The Omai Gold Mine is located in Guyana on the north coast of South America near the west bank of the Essequibo River in the interior of the country. Access to Omai is by road from the capital of Georgetown on the coast, and from the town of Linden approximately 60 km away. There is an operational airstrip on site which can accommodate aircraft from Georgetown. Gold mining at Omai is known from at least the 1880s, and when it was developed as a large scale mine in 1992 by Cambior, the mine was the largest gold mine in the Guiana Shield and a major source of income and employment in Guyana. During the period from 1992 – 2005, Omai produced 3.7 Moz of gold at an average grade of 1.5 g/t Au from the Fennell and the Wenot open pits.
The Sangdong mine located in South Korea is one of the largest tungsten mines in the world. The mine is located 187 km southeast of Seoul, approximately three hours’ drive via expressways and local sealed highways. Temperatures rise to a maximum of about 30 °C during the wet summer months of June to August. The winter period is relatively dry and extends from October to March, with freezing temperatures occurring during the period December to March.
Los Santos Mine is a tungsten open pit mine in the province of Salamanca (Spain). The only tungsten producing mine in Spain, it has been in continuous production since its commissioning in 2008.