Australian tungsten developer, Tungsten Mining NL (ASX: TGN) ('TGN' or 'the Company') is pleased to report a major Mineral Resource Estimate update at the Mt Mulgine Project in the Murchison Region of Western Australia, approximately 350km north northeast of Perth.

Tungsten Mining's CEO Craig Ferrier commented, 'This is an outstanding first step in the Mt Mulgine PFS and the results to date have exceeded our expectations. The very substantial increase in contained metal highlights the enormous potential of the Mt Mulgine project and we look forward to providing the market with an updated estimate at the conclusion of the resource definition drill program to be completed in the first quarter of 2020'.

The Company owns 100% of the tungsten and molybdenum rights on a group of tenements that have been the subject of significant previous evaluation for tungsten and molybdenum. The Company also has the rights to all byproducts from the mining of tungsten and molybdenum. Near surface Mineral Resources have been delineated at the Mulgine Trench and Mulgine Hill deposits, which have been the subject of ongoing evaluation by the Company.

In April 2019, the Company commenced work on a Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) for large scale mining operations at the Mt Mulgine Project. It is anticipated that one of the outcomes of the PFS will be that a significant portion of the Mulgine Trench Mineral Resource will be classified as Indicated, supporting the declaration of a maiden Ore Reserve for the larger Mt Mulgine Project.

In July 2019, the Company commenced resource definition drilling at Mulgine Trench with results from the first 123 reverse circulation (RC) holes received by 22 November 2019. Resource consultants, Optiro Pty Ltd (Optiro) were engaged to update the Mulgine Trench Mineral Resource and completed this exercise in December 2019.

Mulgine Trench Mineral Resource

The previous Mulgine Trench Mineral Resource estimate was completed by CSA Global in November 2014 for tungsten and molybdenum within 0.10% WO3 domains. This estimate was based on drilling on 80 metre to 180 metre spaced sections with 40 metre to 80 metre spaced holes on sections. Since the June 2014 Mineral Resource estimate, the Company has drilled an additional 143 RC holes for 21,157 metres and five PQ diamond holes for 560 metres.

The reported Mineral Resource is constrained within limits defined by a pit shell with an ammonium paratungstate (APT) price of US$400 per mtu revenue factor. This pit shell was used to demonstrate that there are reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction in accordance with the 2012 editon of the JORC Code. At a 0.05% WO3 cut-off grade, this has resulted in a 189% increase in tonnes and an increase in contained metal of 97% in tungsten and 211% for molybdenum. In addition, gold and silver grades were estimated into the block model and this defined 850,000 ounces of gold and 35 million ounces of silver.

The tungsten and molybdenum reported within the December 2019 Mineral Resource estimate constitute the dominant minerals within the Mulgine Trench deposit pursuant to the terms of the Mt Mulgine mineral rights agreements between the Company and Minjar Gold Pty Ltd, with gold and silver identified as accessory minerals and therefore potential by-products to be recovered from mining tungsten and molybdenum. It should be noted that whilst the accessory minerals may have the potential to contribute value as a by-product, they are not considered economic to mine in their own right. The extent of recovery of these accessory minerals is presently uncertain. Metallurgical test work to confirm recoveries for all minerals is in progress as part of the PFS programme and will be reported as the relevant information becomes available.

Geology

Tungsten-molybdenum mineralisation at Mt Mulgine is associated with the Mulgine Granite - a high-level leucogranite forming a 2km stock that intrudes the Mulgine anticline. The granite intrudes a greenstone sequence composed of micaceous schists, amphibolite and talc-chlorite schist which were formerly metasediments, mafic and ultramafic rocks respectively. The Mulgine Granite is associated with intense hydrothermal alteration, with greisenisation and quartz veining of the granite and widespread pervasive phlogopite alteration and sulphidation on the north and northwest flanks of the granite.

The mineralised horizon at Mulgine Trench is a 140 to 220 metre thick zone that has been delineated over 1.4 kilometres of strike and dips shallowly (25 - 40 degrees) towards the northwest. Stratigraphy consists of mafic to ultramafic amphibolites with at least three narrow banded iron formation (BIF) units. Numerous felsic units intrude the sequence, and these are interpreted as being associated with the Mulgine Granite intrusion.

Tungsten mineralisation dominantly occurs as scheelite in veins or adjacent to vein margins or as coatings on fractures or disseminated in greisen units/veins. There are two principal sets of quartz veins, a dominant conformable set that dips shallowly (25 - 40-degree) towards the northwest and a steeper set (50 - 60-degree) dipping in the same direction.

Mineralisation is associated with quartz veins generally less the 10cm and strong mineralisation tends to be associated where quartz veining averages 15 - 20% of the total rock volume.

Metallurgy

Mineralogical and metallurgical studies on the range of ore types from the Mulgine Trench deposit show scheelite well liberated at coarse sized fractions, resulting in high grades and recoveries via simple gravity techniques. Molybdenum was liberated at finer sized fractions and showed high recovery and upgrades through a flotation circuit. 'Sighter' leach tests completed on two composites of low grade oxide samples resulted in a high extraction rate for gold. In addition, historical test work showed that accessory minerals gold and silver were recovered into the sulphide flotation concentrate as by-products in the process of recovering molybdenum. Evidence gathered to date show that no major metallurgical problems are expected to affect the overall viability of the project.

Contact:

Craig Ferrier

Tel: +61 8 9486 8492

Email: craig.ferrier@tungstenmining.com

About Tungsten Mining

Australian tungsten developer, Tungsten Mining NL is an Australian based resources company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. The Company's prime focus is the exploration and development of tungsten projects in Australia. Tungsten (chemical symbol W), occurs naturally on Earth, not in its pure form but as a constituent of other minerals, only two of which support commercial extraction and processing - wolframite ((Fe, Mn) WO4) and scheelite (CaWO4).

Tungsten has the highest melting point of all elements except carbon - around 3400-degreeC giving it excellent high temperature mechanical properties and the lowest expansion coefficient of all metals. Tungsten is a metal of considerable strategic importance, essential to modern industrial development (across aerospace and defence, electronics, automotive, extractive and construction sectors) with uses in cemented carbides, high-speed steels and super alloys, tungsten mill products and chemicals. Through exploration and acquisition, the Company has established a globally significant tungsten resource inventory in its portfolio of advanced mineral projects across Australia. This provides the platform for the Company to become a major player within the global primary tungsten market through the development of lowcost tungsten concentrate production.

(C) 2019 Electronic News Publishing, source ENP Newswire