Tungsten West plc said it needed to find sufficient funds for the near future to avoid having to reassess the restart of Hemerdon tin-tungsten mine in Devon.
FUNDING OPTIONS
In August 2022, the company said it was in discussions for additional funds after its revised plans failed to meet the $49 million loan terms from Orion Resource Partners.
“The company is actively engaged in advanced negotiations with potential funding partners in respect of a combination of royalty, debt and equity financing, in order to secure the funds necessary to complete the project,” said the company in a statement today.
“This will be a major focus of the new CEO [Neil Gawthorpe] and this process will be undertaken with the assistance of Hannam & Partners and VSA Capital.
“In the unlikely event that the company is unable to secure sufficient near-term funding to continue to advance the project as planned, the board would need to reappraise the scope and timing of project delivery.”
Neil Gawthorpe’s initial task as CEO will be to review the available funding options of the business.
PREPARATIONS
Since the start of 2023, the company has advanced the project with regulatory and construction preparations at the site.
Early stage works began in January and include bulk earthworks and civil engineering in readiness for the project’s restart eight to nine months from agreement on full project funding.
The company has also received deliveries of steel rebar and components for the conveyor systems.
As at 31 December 2022, Tungsten West had spent £14m of the project capital expenditure since its IPO.
PERMITTING
The company added that the Environment Agency (EA) had requested further modelling work on the “historic issue of the processing plant causing low frequency noise”.
“Although the company is confident that the revised project plan has eliminated this issue as well as significantly mitigated the general noise impact of the project, the company is currently liaising with the EA on timescales required to complete this work.
“This means the overall timeline to receiving this permit could extend further than initially anticipated, however, this does not currently fall on the critical path for project restart.”
Tungsten West has to date received four of the five required permits including abstraction licences for the Pit, Loughter Mill and Tory Pond, as well as the mine waste facility permit, with the final permit pending for the mineral processing facility.