Tungsten Mining Commences Major Drilling Campaign at Flagship Watershed Project

Tungsten Mining (ASX: TGN) has commenced a major reverse circulation (RC) and diamond drilling campaign at its Watershed project in Queensland, representing a major next step in the company’s technical appraisal, optimisation, and development of the flagship asset.

Drilling will target known mineralisation within planned initial mining areas while collecting the metallurgical and geotechnical information needed to support mine planning, pit design, and detailed engineering.

The RC portion of the campaign will consist of 175 holes for approximately 15,000 metres to increase confidence in the continuity, geometry, and grade distribution of mineralisation within the target areas.

Tungsten Mining expects it to be completed within four months, and will use the results to support an updated mineral resource model.

Diamond Drill Program

Diamond drilling will comprise 75 holes for approximately 5,700m over a three-month period to collect representative metallurgical samples and geotechnical information for process and pit design, detailed engineering, and mine planning.

Logged and assayed core will also support the mineral resource update.

Tungsten acquired Watershed in 2018 from Vital Metals (ASX: VML), which had already delivered a definitive feasibility study for the project.

An updated mineral resource estimate in June confirmed a total 69.7 million tonnes at 0.109% tungsten oxide for 76,000t contained metal.

The preliminary economic evaluation (PEE) released shortly thereafter outlined a high-margin project with potential to fast-track to production in 2027, requiring capex of $274 million to deliver a $1.3 billion net present value.

Advancing Watershed

Chair Gary Lyons said the campaign was an important next step in the advancement of Watershed following the strong PEE outcomes.

“Reverse circulation drilling will concentrate on areas of known high-grade mineralisation targeted for initial mining and is designed to provide greater confidence and definition for resource modelling and mine planning,” he said.

“At the same time, the diamond work will provide metallurgical samples and geotechnical information to refine process design, pit design, and detailed engineering.”

“Together, these programs will further enhance the technical definition of Watershed and help reduce project development risk as we advance.”

Initial drilling results are expected from October this year.