Blackheath Resources (BHR.V) has substantially increased the resource estimate at its Covas tungsten project in Portugal. The company was able to convert a historical estimate of 923,000 tonnes of ore at an average grade of 0.78% WO3 to a NI43-101 compliant estimate containing just over 1.2 million metric tonne units of tungsten (which is an increase of almost 70%). Almost 1/3rd of the total resources are contained in the indicated resource category which already is an excellent achievement.
The average grade of 0.42% for the indicated resource and 0.35% for the inferred resource might sound low compared to the historical estimate and past production, but keep in mind Blackheath had to cap the grades it encountered. We haven’t seen the results of an uncapped estimate but there’s little doubt both the grade and tungsten content would have been substantially higher.
Also keep in mind almost the entire resource lies within just 60 meters from surface and as an average tungsten grade of 0.4% is equivalent to almost 3 grammes of gold per tonne of rock, it’s pretty obvious the grade is pretty good and compares very favorable to Portugal’s producing Panasqueira mine which has a head grade of less than 0.20% WO3.
We expect Blackheath to start another round of confirmation and expansion drilling before this summer and this should result in an updated resource estimate and potentially a scoping study within the next 12-18 months. With this resource estimate in hand, Blackheath now most definitely has positioned itself as one of the most important tungsten explorers in the world.
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Disclosure: The author holds a long position in Blackheath Resources. Blackheath is a sponsor of the website. Please see our disclaimer for current positions.
