Yukon signs road pact with junior

The Yukon government has reached a road maintenance agreement with North American Tungsten (NAT) which supports the reopening of the CanTung mine.

The Department of Community and Transportation Services will spend more than $700,000 this year to reopen and upgrade the road to the Yukon-Northwest Territories border, which services the mine. The mine is near the territorial border, north of Watson Lake.

The territory will spend $150,000 to strengthen the upper Frances River Bridge, which will support heavy vehicles travelling to and from the mine.

Beginning next year, the government will spend an additional $450,000 annually to perform year-round maintenance on most of the road, while NAT will maintain a 70-km stretch from the mine to the main highway.

“I am extremely pleased with this mutually beneficial agreement,” says Minister of Economic Development Scott Kent. “It encourages employment opportunities for Yukon residents and local businesses. At the same time, it meets NAT’s request for necessary improvements and maintenance to the road leading to the mine site.”

It’s thought that the reopening of the mine will create an estimated 175 jobs. Under the agreement, NAT has agreed to co-operate with the Yukon government on training opportunities for Yukon residents and make contracting opportunities available to contractors based in the territory

NAT recently entered into agreements with two leading producers of tungsten products: Pennsylvania-based Osram Sylvania Products (a subsidiary of Siemens of Germany) and Stockholm-based Sandvik.

In exchange for $6.5 million in financing, the two tungsten consumers have agreed to buy, over three years, all of NAT’s concentrate production from CanTung. This output is estimated to be 900,000 tonnes.

When the mine enters production, it will be the largest tungsten producer in the Western World. CanTung’s reserves are pegged at 630,000 tonnes grading 1.82% tungsten trioxide.

NAT owns 100% of the CanTung mine, as well as the MacTung deposit, 160 km north. These assets represent the Western World’s largest reserves of high-grade proven tungsten and comprise some 15% of the world’s proven resource base.