Ormonde Mining Gets Approval for Spanish Tungsten Project, Joins Small Club

Ormonde Mining (LSE:ORM) announced last Friday that it has received a mining concession for its Barruecopardo tungsten project, located near Salamanca, Spain. In doing so, it’s joined a small club of tungsten miners in the country.

That club includes Almonty Industries (TSXV:AII), Plymouth Minerals (ASX:PLH) and W Resources (LSE:WRES), both of which are looking to take advantage of a relatively underdeveloped tungsten industry on the Iberian Peninsula.

Ormonde’s big plans

Commenting on the granting of the permit, Kerr Anderson, Ireland-based Ormonde’s managing director, said, “[t]he receipt of the Mining Concession for our flagship Barruecopardo Tungsten Project in western Spain is clearly a major milestone for the Project and for Ormonde.”

The permit allows Ormonde to develop the site for an initial 30 years with a further renewal of 60 years allowed. Experts believe the mine may be able to provide roughly 8 percent of all tungsten from outside of China.

The company has forecasted an internal rate of return of 52 percent and a low capital cost of 48.5 million euros. It already has a five-year offtake agreement negotiated with Noble Group (SGX:N21) to provide a steady source of income.

Welcome to the club

Mining began in the Salamanca region in the early 1900s and continued well up until 1982. It currently seems to be enjoying a resurgence in interest, at least in terms of tungsten.

Almonty Industries has been operating in the region since 2011, when it acquired the Los Santos mine. It released a NI 43-101 report two years later showing total mineral reserves of 10,678 tons of tungsten trioxide at 0.28 percent.

Almonty also took an interest in the Valtreixal tungsten project, purchasing a 51-percent interest and becoming the project operator for a cool 1.4 million euros in mid-2013. By 2015, it will have a chance to purchase the remaining 49 percent interest from SIEMCALSA for a further 2 million euros.

Plymouth Minerals entered the country in 2013, looking to purchase a stake in the Morille tungsten-tin project for 300,000 euros. On November 4, the company announced the purchase of an 80-percent interest in the project. Drilling on the site has shown up to 5 percent tungsten trioxide over single-meter intercepts, with phase 2 of drilling scheduled to start in the fourth quarter of 2014 and continue into 2015.

W Resources operates its flagship La Parrilla tungsten property in southwest Spain. A 2013 resource estimate lists the property has have an inferred resource of nearly 47 million tons with a grade of 0.09 percent tungsten tri-oxide. In October, the company shipped a record 39 tons of tungsten concentrate  for revenue exceeding €470,000. The company is currently in the process of improving its tailings plant .

Looking to establish roots

China dominates the tungsten market, accounting for roughly 80 percent of the world’s supply, with limited supply coming from Europe as a whole.

Oromonde, Plymouth, Almonty and W Resources are all hoping their respective projects can take on some of the load and kickstart a dormant tungsten mining industry.

Securities Disclosure: I, Nick Wells, hold no direct investment in any of the companies mentioned in this article.