Tungsten. Image: Björn Wylezich/stock.adobe.com
EQ Resources hit new weekly production records in June at its Mount Carbine and Saloro tungsten operations in Queensland and Spain respectively.
The Mount Carbine operations produced a record 70.4 tonnes of 50 per cent tungsten oxide (WO3) concentrate over a seven-day production period, with a daily record of 13.6 tonnes of 50 per cent WO3 concentrate produced within a 24-hour period.
According to EQ, this marks a 16 per cent improvement over the previous weekly production record at Mount Carbine. It also builds off the production record achieved in the March 2024 quarter.
The Saloro operations also achieved a weekly production record of around 50 tonnes of 50 per cent WO3-equivalent concentrate within a seven-day period at the beginning of June.
EQ credited the higher recovery and final concentrate production at Saloro to significant upgrades implemented during the June 2024 quarter.
“I am very pleased with the progress seen at both operations specifically throughout June,” EQ chief executive officer Kevin MacNeill said.
“Mount Carbine faced a major rebuild of our main screen, which allowed us to implement the previously announced upgrade of one of our XRT sorters. Technology is evolving quickly and given our good relationship with TOMRA and considering that we just commissioned the new generation sorters at Saloro, we could finish the upgrade in less than a week.”
Looking ahead, the Saloro processing plant de-bottlenecking program is scheduled for completion by the end of the September 2024 quarter.
The plant improvements implemented so far include the crushing and screening circuit, modification of jig ragging, spiral circuit optimisation and a rearrangement of the shaking table circuit to capture a higher proportion of fine scheelite previously lost in the tailings stream.
The Queensland Investment Corporation will also fund the expansion of Mount Carbine via a $20 million loan to be received by EQ in two instalments over a three-year period.