Primary Metals lands tungsten buyer

Vancouver — Osram Sylvania, the North American arm of German-based lighting manufacturer Osram Gmbh, will buy all the tungsten concentrate produced by Primary Metals (PMI-V) at its Panasqueira mine in central Portugal.

Contract pricing for the multi-year sales agreement will be based on market levels for ammonium paratungstate (APT). Primary Metals’ operating subsidiary, Beralt Tin & Wolfram, could realize annual sales revenue of US$25 million based on recent market price levels for APT.

Primary Metals is evaluating a technology designed to capture ultra-fine tungsten particles and thereby boost recovery rates. The technology could be applicable to a stockpile of fine tailings containing more than 300,000 metric ton units of WO3 (tungsten trioxide).

World tungsten prices have soared as a result of supply shortages and tightening markets driven by Asian demand. Since early 2005, prices have skyrocketed to almost US$300 per MTU from below US$100. Each MTU contains 10 kg of WO3, or 7.9 kg of tungsten.

The Panasqueira underground tungsten-tin mine has operated since the 1890s. Minorco, a member of the Anglo American (AAUK-Q) group of companies, acquired it in 1990 only to shut it down three years later. In 1994, a predecessor of U.K.-based Avocet Mining acquired the mine and resumed production the following year.

Subsequent low tungsten prices induced Avocet to sell the mine to Primary Metals in 2003.