Blackheath Resources (BHR.V), our favorite tungsten explorer in Portugal, has – finally- released some drill results from the most recent exploration program on the Borralha project. The drill program was focused on the Santa Helena Breccia zone where Blackheath completed an exciting trenching program but which had never been drilled before. The most impressive intercept from this drill program is without any doubt an interval of 118 meters containing 0.29% WO3 in hole 08A, which is one of the best drill results (starting from surface) ever for a tungsten project.
It’s really encouraging and even exciting to see Blackheath immediately finding the breccia zone and 5 of the 6 drilled holes actually ended within this zone, indicating there’s much more potential at depth. This also means the current outlined potentially mineralized zone of 575 meters by 150 meters by 200 meters (for a total tonnage of approximately 45 million tonnes using a density of 2.75) could be much larger than what’s currently being anticipated.
Keep in mind that the past-producing Borralha project should be seen as a bulk tonnage project and the grade will always be much lower than the higher grade Covas project which is also located in Portugal. It would be better to compare this type of project with Wolf Minerals’ (ASX:WLF, LON:WLFE) Hemerdon project in the United Kingdom which has an average reserve grade of 0.18% WO3 and an average resource grade of 0.15% WO3. Hemerdon will produce 345,000 mtu of tungsten per year at an AISC of $128/mtu, so a project with an average grade of 0.15-0.20% should be viable, even at today’s tungsten price of just $270/mtu (coming from $400/mtu just 2 years ago).
> Click here to read Blackheath’s press release
Disclosure: The author holds a long position in Blackheath Resources. Blackheath is a sponsor of the website. Please see our disclaimer for current positions.
