Overview

Mine Type	Open Pit
Status	Active
Commodities	Tungsten
Mining Method	Truck & Shovel / Loader
Production Start	...
Mine Life	...
Snapshot	In 2019 EQ Resources began recommissioning of the Historical Mt Carbine Mine. Open cut mining activities kicked off with the inaugural blast undertaken on 24 June 2023, promptly followed by the commencement of ore deliveries. The operation successfully transitioned from primarily utilising material from the low grade stockpile to processing primarily tungsten-rich open cut ore. Expansion (Phase 2) focused on the activities and works required to dewater and commence mining of the open pit as well as the crushing and screening plant and processing plant to be upgraded to further reduce operating costs and increase the tungsten recovery. It is planned to continue to drill to the west as well as evaluate underground mining to supplement the depletion of the open pit in-situ ore. This will be the subject of further study.

Deposit type

• Vein / narrow vein

Summary:

The Mt Carbine mine site is located within the Siluro-Devonian Hodgkinson sedimentary province. The thick sedimentary sequence was complexly folded and regionally metamorphosed prior to and during extensive granitic intrusions in the Carboniferous and Permian.

Within the permit north-north-west trending Hodgkinson Formation turbidite and siltstones are intruded by the Mareeba Granite dated at 277My, and the Mt Alto Granite, dated at 271±5My (Bultitude et al., 1999). Contact metamorphic aureoles marked by formation of cordierite Hornfels surround the granite intrusive and numerous acid to intermediate dykes intrude the metasediments. In the western portion of the tenement, a prominent metabasalt-chert ridge is a significant Hodgkinson formation stratigraphic component.

Mineralisation
The Mt Carbine tungsten deposit consists of a number of vertical to sub vertical sheeted quartz veins ranging in width up to 7m but averaging around 50cm. Only about 20% of the quartz veins are mineralised due to an early barren quartz event and a later mineralising quartz event. Economic minerals are the tungsten minerals of scheelite and wolframite mineralisation that occur in the ratio of 1:4 respectively.

A typical section through the canter of the deposit has over 35 quartz veins ranging from 10cm to 7m in width with 5-8 zones of overprinting mineralised quartz veins of 10 -150cm widths. These high grade veins containing rich quartz - feldspar tungsten minerals and have been designated as “King Veins”.

The tungsten occurs as coarse crystalline varieties of Wolframite up to 10cm crystal size and with varying degrees of intergrown scheelite that is volumetrically less significant. Tungsten minerals can form up to 50% of the quartz vein zone, as intersected and with such a coarse nature to the mineralisation causes a nugget effect to the mineralisation. In a later retrograde stage a scheelite overprinting event occurs that is represented mostly as fine scheelite replacing wolframite on fractures and progressive wholesale replacement.

The Scheelite-Wolframite ratio is seen to increase to the grid north and grid east of the deposit and this mostly reflects the host rocks change to a more calcareous metavolcanic-chert horizon. In general the veins are persistent and strong and cross all rock types. The occurrence of the veins is thought to be a conjugate veins set as the result of movement on faults occurring on the fold nose of an isoclinal fold. The sheeted parallel nature to the veins locally have jogs along strike resulting in movement of local structures during tungsten deposition.

The mineralisation interpretation is that there are two primary mineralising events with the first phase being a pervasive gaseous front that forms broader scale silicification / veining and deposits a lower grade background level of tungsten mineralisation. A rich brine fluid then entered later through later fracturing of the now silicified host rock. These brine veins (king veins shown above) are recognised to have higher temperature and higher salinities in fluid inclusion work attesting to their direct magmatic origin. Conversely the gaseous veins result in fluid inclusions with more gases and a composition showing mixing with groundwater has occurred. The king veins can be as high as 50% WO3 but typically are in the 1-2% WO3 range.

Along the grid E-W strike to the mineralisation, the veins have been grouped into lenses, where one or more of the high-grade king veins are close enough to define a composite value above a cut off of 2m 0.25% WO3.

Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

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Processing

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Production

Commodity	Units	2023	2022
Tungsten	kt	....	....

Personnel

Job Title	Name	Profile	Ref. Date
.......................	.......................		Dec 21, 2023
.......................	.......................		Dec 21, 2023
.......................	.......................		Dec 21, 2023

Total Workforce	Year
......	2023
......	2022