Vital hits high-grade tungsten at Watershed

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Drilling carried out by Vital Metals on the company’s Watershed tungsten project in Queensland has intersected high-grade tungsten mineralisation in multiple vein swarms.

Vital Metals has received tungsten assay results from a diamond drilling program and trench sampling program the company completed in December 2011.

According to Vital the drilling intersected multiple vein swarms typical of the Scheelite mineralisation found at Watershed.

The company claims a third of the reported intercepts have a grade higher than 0.30 per cent tungsten, which it noted is close to the head grade of the operating underground mine at Mittersill, Austria.

Results received from the diamond drilling on the Watershed tungsten project include:

–    10 metres at 0.41 per cent tungsten from 73 metres;

–    1m at 6.37 per cent tungsten from 122m;

–    20m at 0.22 per cent tungsten from 4m;

–    14m at 0.39 per cent tungsten from 27m; and

–    10m at 0.25 per cent tungsten from 136m.

 

Watershed drilling showing reported intersections. Source: Company announcement

 

The trench sampling carried out by Vital across a vein swarm reported:

–    13m at 1.07 per cent tungsten from surface; and

–    30m at 0.31 per cent tungsten from surface.

The majority of the eight hole diamond drilling program targeted open pit-able mineralisation at less than 200m with hole depths from the program varying from a shallow 105.4m to 417.1m in total depth.

The most significant Tungsten intercepts Vital received from the program stemmed from two particular holes (1m at 6.37 per cent and 14m at 0.39 per cent).

Seven of the holes were designed to provide additional data on tungsten mineralisation around the limits of the previous pit design while another was designed to test for deeper tungsten mineralisation.

“Tungsten was a standout commodity last year with the price closing over 30 per cent higher than the start of the year,” Vital Metals said in its ASX announcement.

“Continued supply pressure and increased demand have supported that price increase since the start of 2012.

“Vital believes that the Watershed project is well placed to take advantage of these prices and based on the current schedule at Watershed our goal is to be in construction during 2013 and producing tungsten concentrate by 2014.”