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Almonty Industries Inc
Symbol AII
Shares Issued 110,896,109
Close 2017-05-12 C$ 0.27
Market Cap C$ 29,941,949
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Almonty to improve tailings recovery at Panasqueira

2017-05-15 11:23 ET - News Release

Mr. Lewis Black reports

ALMONTY ANNOUNCES INITIATIVES TO ENHANCE TAILINGS RECOVERY AT ITS PANASQUIERA MINE AND THE FILING OF AN UPDATED TECHNICAL REPORT ON ITS WOLFRAM CAMP MINE

Almonty Industries Inc.'s fully owned subsidiary, Beralt Tin and Wolfram (Portugal) SA, which operates the Panasqueira tungsten mine in Portugal, has reached a comprehensive agreement with Crominet Mining Processing SA (Pty.) Ltd., which is expected to result in an increase to its overall recovery.

Currently, at Panasqueira, a heavy media separation unit generates a preconcentrate, which is then upgraded by gravimetric methods to produce an outstanding final concentrate containing 75 per cent WO3 (tungsten trioxide), considered to be the highest commercially available grade in the world.

Tailings from the said heavy media separation unit containing, in average, 0.03 per cent WO3 were sent to Crominet facilities where XRT sorting tests showed a possible recovery of up to 93.6 per cent of the contained tungsten. The preconcentrate here obtained will be upgraded on the existing installations together with the preconcentrate referred above.

Under the agreement with Crominet, Crominet will install and operate at Panasqueira an XRT ore sorter and respective ancillary equipment with enough capacity to treat the totality of the tailings generated by the heavy media separation unit.

This XRT ore sorter installation is scheduled to start operating by October, 2017.

The extra recovery expected to be achieved could represent a conservative increase of 10 per cent on Panasqueira's annual production. Depending on how the extra recovery is ultimately measured, the installation of more XRT ore sorters to reclaim material from other tailings facilities may be considered.

Almonty has also filed an updated technical report under National Instrument 43-101 standards of disclosure for mineral projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators to reflect developments at the Wolfram Camp mine. The technical report provides for updated operational costs, both in mine, plant and G&A (general and administrative expenses).

Plant upgrades are currently being implemented, which are expected to increase plant processing capacity from 400,000 tonnes per year to 518,000 tonnes per year.

The design focus for recent updates to the plant process has been to improve the recovery of wolframite by minimizing overgrinding of the ore. This will be achieved by increasing the number of ore crushing and screening stages, thereby improving the control of the grinding process. By removing the ball mill (as used previously) and using instead additional cone crushers, it is intended that the generation of excessive quantities of ultrafines will be avoided.

As a result of the plant updates, a different type of tailings will be produced. Rather than a homogenous tailings, the tailings will be classified into a fine and a coarse fraction. The coarse fraction can then be dry-stacked efficiently, with the advantage of not occupying volume within the tailings dam. This material may also potentially be used to facilitate site rehabilitation works. It is expected that the fine fraction will represent approximately 10 per cent of the tailings generated instead of the entire amount as previously was happening. Along with the mass reduction obtained using the ore sorters, the gravimetric circuit will only be fed with 55.6 per cent of the overall processed tonnage. Therefore, the fine tailings fraction tonnage will be 5.56 per cent of the overall plant feed. Based on current modelling, the plant feed is expected to be 518,400 tonnes per year, meaning the fine tailings fraction will be 28,823 tonnes per year. This much reduced fine tailings output will delay the need for developing a new tailings storage facility.

Alternative methods for disposal of fine tailings are also being considered, which include use of a filter press to produce a filter cake and possible use of the current main pit when it has been exhausted.

Current modelling implies that 90 per cent of the total tailings produced will be coarse tailings, which represents approximately 50 per cent of the total plant feed. It is planned that the coarse tailings fraction will be stored downstream of the TSF2 embankment. This will initially permit the collection of the residual process water in the existing mine water dam (MWD) for reuse in the plant. During this stage, another water dam that is already approved as the mine water management dam (MWMD) will be constructed downstream of both the MWD and TSF3. This would permit the former MWD to be backfilled with tailings and subsequently permit use of the entire area between the TSF3 and TSF2 walls to be used to store coarse tailings. It would also provide a more suitable dam for water storage and recovery.

It is planned to utilize a water treatment plant to thicken the fine tailings fraction and to provide clarified water for reuse in the processing plant. Historically, the lack of clean recycled water has caused problems in the processing plant, with accelerated wear of equipment and diminished separation performance in the flotation and gravity circuits. It is anticipated that in addition to improving the physical properties of the water, there will be an increased water recovery efficiency, as the tailings are better dewatered prior to disposal.

Almonty chairman, president and chief executive officer Lewis Black said: "We anticipate that this agreement with Crominet will allow us to enhance productivity at Panasquiera and [thus] contribute to improved financial performance. We continue to work with Crominet to assess all our current projects in Spain, Australia and Korea in regard to efficient reprocessing of our tailings. Crominet have expressed that they are extremely comfortable in working with what they consider to be an extremely professional and knowledgeable tungsten team at Almonty. In addition, the conclusions of the updated technical report at the Wolfram Camp mine equally are expected to drive further efficiency of production. These represent further measures deployed by Almonty to provide for increased efficiency in its operations, which has allowed us to weather the downturn in pricing for tungsten concentrate."

About Almonty Industries Inc.

The principal business of Almonty is the mining, processing and shipping of tungsten concentrate from its Los Santos mine in western Spain, its Wolfram Camp mine in north Queensland, Australia, and its Panasqueira mine in Portugal, as well as the development of the Sangdong tungsten mine in Gangwon province, Korea, and the Valtreixal tin/tungsten project in northwestern Spain.

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