An updated bankable feasibility study is out for EQ Resources’ Mount Carbine expansion project – and it is good news for the bottom line.

With a 10-year production schedule, the Far North Queensland tungsten project is expected to deliver an NPV of $307 million – 47 per cent greater than calculated late last year, life of mine EBITDA of $450 million and an IRR of 477 per cent.

It covers total concentrate production of about 38,570 tonnes (50 per cent WO3 content) – an increase of 25 per cent over the last BFS output, and a doubling of processing plant capacity from 2025.

A detailed review of the project’s economics was carried out based on EQ Resources’ recent upgrade of the Mount Carbine ore reserves.

The company has already completed Phase 1 of the expansion project and is gearing up to add open-cut mining to the Mount Carbine operation, which has been processing low-grade stockpiles at the historical site to produce tungsten concentrate.

“The successful drill campaigns and strong trends of conversion of resource from inferred to indicated along with a fully functioning processing operation has supported the positive outcomes in this BFS update,” chief executive officer Kevin MacNeill said.

“As reiterated in previous announcements, the Phase 1 processing plants have provided the data we need as
a company to design a plant that is optimised for the Mount Carbine mineralogy to maximise tungsten recovery
and deliver the best results for the company.

“The pit has now been completely de-watered and grade control drilling is ongoing with mining set to start in
June 2023.

“This is extremely exciting for the company with the site an absolute hive of activity as final preparations are made for the open-cut mining to resume.

“The Phase 2 plant upgrades are underway along with the new Sandvik crushing plant which is set for commissioning in early 2024.

“Until then, we have the processing capacity to use our current plant and equipment to process the primary open cut ore.”

Turner & Townsend JukesTodd completed the updated bankable feasibility study for the Mount Carbine operation.

The expected capital cost of $21.4 million has been further optimised to $18.5m (a decrease of $2.9 million) as
an effect of scope changes and defined costing. But $7.8 million has been added to reflect doubling of plant capacity, resulting in total capex over project life of $26.3 million.

EQ Resources said the tungsten concentrate production C1 cash cost remained amongst lowest in the industry, with an equivalent of US$104/mtu once full capacity had been reached.