Icon Resources (ASX: III) is a diversified metals explorer focussed on Eastern Australia. It has advanced projects in gold and tin in NSW. It also holds strategic areas in northwest Qld prospective for zinc, copper-gold and nickel with gold and copper prospects in NSW and Qld. The company is currently concentrating on its flagship project, the old Mt Carbine tungsten mine in north Queensland.
Icon Resources to take advantage of rising tungsten price
Emerging tungsten producer Icon Resources (ASX: III) is shaping up as a stock to watch with the price of tungsten on the rise.
In his address at the company's annual general meeting, Icon managing director Dr John Bishop said the predictions for tungsten were all "bullish", with industry commentators believing sustained demand will drive up prices.
Today, the share price of Icon was up 12.2%, or 1.2c, to 11c following the AGM.
Icon's projects include the Mt Carbine flagship tungsten project, the Fitzroy Copper Zinc Project, the Peel Fault Gold Project and the Tara Tin Project.
Once Australia’s largest tungsten producer, Icon is progressing to re-start the Mt Carbine flagship tungsten mine as a long life, hard-rock open cut operation.
At one stage the mine historically produced half of Australia's annual tungsten when it closed in the mid-1980s due to depressed tungsten prices.
A recent Scoping Study confirmed a viable project based on extracting 7-9Mt and the project remains on track for re-opening with a long-life mine plan.
The Study modelled a Whittle-derived 1.5Mtpa open cut operation with a strip ratio of 1.7 and a recoverable resource of 7.2Mt @ 0.21% WO3 (tungsten oxide) producing approximately 2350 tonnes of WO3 in concentrate per year.
Cash Cost per MTU is estimated at A$144. Margin per MTU, based on an MTU price of A$250, provides a margin of A$52 per MTU.
[Note: 1 MTU of concentrate is 1/100 of a tonne or 10kg of WO3].
With strong potential to extend beyond the base-case five year mine plan by accessing sparsely-drilled adjacent mineralisation.
The base-case model gives a project net cash flow valuation (after capex, admin, royalties, etc but before tax) of $59M or NPV of 46cps - (at an 8% discount rate) on the current 75M issued shares.
But reconciliation of a model grade with historical records suggest in situ grade coukld be 20% higher.
Combined with an achievable 50% increase in tonnage, this gives a cash flow of close to $200M or NPV of $1.60 per share.
A Pre-Feasibility Study on the mine is scheduled for completion by the end of 2010.
Dr Bishop said there was significant opportunity to increase the resources base, with mineralisation extending beyond and below the current open cut.
There has been no exploration of extensive old workings adjacent to the pit, while previous operation concentrating on wolframite with scheelite-rich areas were largely ignored.
Other major tungsten companies include Newcrest Mining, Vital Metals, Wolf Minerals and Planet Metals.
Tungsten is found in several ores, including wolframite and scheelite. It is remarkable for its robust physical properties, especially the fact that it has the highest melting point of all the non-alloyed metals and the second highest of all the elements after carbon.
Tungsten is used in car horns, safety switches, the vibrating mechanism in mobile phones, dental drillls, light globes, ball point pens, heated car windows and fishing sinkers.
The tungsten prices have multipled over the last few years, with China holding 60% of the world's reserves.
Although the price of tungsten has decreased in recent months, industry commentators are predicting sustained demand as concentrates are now back to ~US$150 and rising.
