King Island Scheelite secures $10.2m equipment loan, as tungsten cube craze continues

King Island Scheelite’s (ASX: KIS) $10.2 million equipment hire purchase facility has been approved, enabling its Dolphin tungsten project to continue advancing, as a strange new craze opens up for the metal in the form of crypto investors entering a buying frenzy for small “amazingly heavy” tungsten cubes.

An original equipment manufacturer financier has officially granted King Island Scheelite’s equipment hire purchase facility which amounts to $10.22 million after costs.

The facility will be available in tranches that can be drawn when equipment items are purchased.

Each tranche will be repayable with interest within 48 months of drawdown.

The company will use it to finance its mobile mining fleet, which will be used to construct and redevelop its wholly-owned high-grade Dolphin project on Tasmania’s King Island.

King Island Scheelite executive chairman Johann Jacobs said securing the facility was a “significant step” for the company.

“This is a further milestone in our planned redevelopment of the Dolphin tungsten mine and is an important component of total project financing of the targeted $88 million.”

“Dolphin is a high-grade, low-cost project with a clear pathway to near-term production, and with our plans fully funded and permitted, we look forward to moving through the construction phase,” Mr Jacobs added.

Crypto investors and a new tungsten obsession

King Island Scheelite’s positive news for Dolphin comes as a new cult-like following has opened up for tungsten over the last month.

The craze has led to crypto investors obsessing over small cubes of the aerospace grade metal sold as desktop novelty items.

Prices have ranged from around US$19.99 (A$27.03) for a 1cm cube weighing 18.14 grams, and go up to US$2,999.99 (A$4,046.59) for the largest, which is about 19kg.

Since the buying frenzy kicked-off, US manufacturer Midwest Tungsten Service has reported a 300% rise in cube sales, with its Amazon store front inventory completely depleted.

Additionally, the demand led to Midwest selling a 36cm cube weighing in at 907kg as a non-fungible token (NFT) for US$250,000 (A$338,050).

Sold as a NFT means ownership proof is stored in the Ethereum blockchain.

The transaction allows the purchaser to have an annual supervised visit at Midwest’s headquarters in Illinois.

The sales description notes that “subsequent owners of the NFT cannot visit the cube in a year in which the cube has already been visited”.

Commentors on the phenomenon have said crypto cubes were made of one of the world’s densest elements that can be safely touched.

This gives crypto investors a palpable object to own, and touch compared to cryptocurrencies which exist in the entirely digital world.