We discovered that whilst the mineralised quartz veins are identifiable and exhibit strike continuity within the existing underground development, the wolframite mineralisation does not show the same level of consistency. Tungsten grades show extreme variability and range from sub-economic to more than 300kg per ton over short strike distances. This variability in wolframite mineralisation may make application of normal geostatistical methodologies unreliable and this has resulted in the extended sampling and re-evaluation process described above, which is vital to ensure our financial modelling of RHA remains accurate.

Combination of narrow vein (down to 1m width) and mechanised long hole open stoping (down to 2.5m width) Potential for an early open pit mine being investigated.

Following a review of immediately available tungsten rich material at RHA, we reported in October that sufficient tonnage was immediately available both in the open pit and underground operations to support an initial 3 years’ of operations at up to 40,000 tons per month with the installation of the X-Ray Transmission (XRT) system for ore sorting.

At about this time, it became apparent that to fully exploit the potential of RHA and achieve levels of profitability anticipated before the collapse of commodity prices, that we would have to complete certain modifications to the crushing circuit, which was done and subsequently, we should further modify the circuit to include X-ray based mineral sorting that would facilitate increased mining rates and would pre-concentrate ore before delivery of material to the gravity recovery circuits of the plant.

The processing plant is a conventional gravity processing plant with a capacity of 40,000 tonnes per month. The plant is equipped with an XRT sorter to upgrade the feed to the plant and hence reduce the overall operating costs.