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W Resources (LON:WRES) has kick-started its campaign to develop its Régua tungsten project in the north of Portugal, it told investors.
The initial phase will be targeted drilling and a metallurgical programme with an initial five tonnes of near surface tungsten ore mined and trucked 350 km to the group's La Parrilla site for test processing.
The firm has also begun a 2,000 metre, eight hole, diamond core drilling campaign to appraise lateral and depth extensions to existing mineralisation.
Drilling has started on the first four holes with the first phase scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2015.
Régua is a high-grade deposit 20 km from the firm's Tarouca exploration project. The firm wants to integrate the two to form a significant mining hub in the region.
Chairman Michael Masterman said: "We are targeting a total of 10 million tonnes of tungsten at 0.3% WO3 through the combined Régua / Tarouca hub, to form the cornerstone of a world class tungsten mine development.
"We are very efficiently using targeted capital spending to drive the growth and ultimately the significant value of this important asset. We are confident that the drilling and metallurgical work will advance and add substantial value to this mine development."
Régua has a JORC resource of 4.46 million tonnes at 0.308% tungsten trioxide and the aim of the drilling programme is to increase this resource during the first half next year.
A trial mining licence was granted in June this year.
After the announcement, broker Northland made no changes to its forecasts or price target of 1.5 p for the stock. It rates the shares a 'buy'.
Shares eased 2.08% to 0.47p.