Woulfe Mining Corp. (fka WFEMF)

[balihi]

The PR stated a recommondation to that effect.I notice that articles pertaining to Tungsten,seem to exclude WOF as a major player,I think that is about to change,once Warren Buffet's name is mentioned again.


Just a reminder......

Overview


Woulfe Mining owns a 100% interest in the Sangdong Tungsten/Molybdenum Project located in South Korea. The Sangdong deposit hosts one of the largest tungsten resources in the world, and was the leading global tungsten producer for more than 40 years prior to closure in 1992. Low metal prices, not the exhaustion of resources, led to the mine's premature closure.

The Korean operating environment is highly competitive, with relatively low materials and wages costs, low taxes and no royalties, and the forecast capital cost is significantly lower than that for most comparable Western projects.

Project financing is underpinned by a series of definitive agreements with The International Metalworking Companies B.V., ("IMC"), a company that is 100% owned indirectly by Berkshire Hathaway. Under the agreements, IMC will contribute US$35 million cash for a 25% interest in the Sangdong mine and concentrator, and will construct and have a 55% interest in the APT plant. IMC will be entitled to the off-take at a discount to market price, and Woulfe will repay its share of the APT plant construction cost out of future production revenues.

Tungsten is a strategic metal and China dominates global production and consumption. China has recently extended its restrictions on the production and export of tungsten, along with the restrictions on rare earths and antimony, to conserve its resources and protect the environment. China had long been the largest exporter of tungsten. However, its own growth has turned it into the leading consumer of the metal. This, combined with the continued demand across the rest of the world, precipitated the recent sudden surge in the price of tungsten.



History


South Korea once had a thriving mining culture with many relatively small metallic mines including gold, base metals and tungsten/molybdenum. The Sangdong mine was the powerhouse of the economy in the post-Korean War decades, contributing more than 50% of the country's export revenue as one of the largest global tungsten producers. This mine, along with almost all other metallic mines in South Korea, closed in the 1990's primarily due to low commodity prices, at a time when South Korea was emerging as a manufacturing powerhouse with companies such as Hyundai, LG, Samsung and POSCO attaining international prominence.

The mining industry was relegated to an insignificant corner of the economy, now contributing less than 0.5% of the GNP. In fact, in recent years, there appears to be a widespread perception in South Korea that the former mines were fully exploited, never to be re-opened. The former owner of the Sangdong mine, Korea Tungsten Co., evolved into Korea's largest manufacturer of tungsten cutting tools and hard metal tools with the only integrated tungsten production plant in the world, known as TaeguTec Ltd., being wholly owned by IMC.

The boom in commodity prices is underpinning the revival of the South Korean mining industry. Woulfe Mining Corp. was fortunate that it recognized the potential in South Korea prior to the boom and secured title to several properties in 2006, including Sangdong, the Muguk gold/silver mine and the Yeonwha lead/zinc mine, all historically the largest producers of the respective metals in South Korea, plus a number of other secondary properties.


Location and Geology


Location
The Sangdong property is located 187km southeast of Seoul, approximately three hours' drive via expressways and local sealed highways. The nearest settlement is the village of Sangdong within 0.5km and the town of Taebaek with a population of around 60,000 is located some 30km distant.

The property is located in an area of moderately rugged relief, with steep hills rising to approximately 500m above deeply-incised valleys. Despite the terrain, access is well developed; a paved road passes within several hundred metres of the old mill site and forestry roads traverse the property. A power line passes within several kilometres of the property and water sufficient for a mining operation is available either from ground water or from a nearby river.

Temperatures rise to a maximum of about 30°C during the wet summer months of June to August. The winter period is relatively dry and extends from October to March, with freezing temperatures occurring during the period December to February. Snow accumulations can be as much as 1m.

Tenure

The property is comprised of 12 Mining Rights with an aggregate area of 3,173 hectares, held in the name of Sangdong Mining Corporation, a 100%-owned subsidiary of Woulfe.



Regional Geology
Sangdong is a tungsten skarn deposit where mineralization is hosted in hydrothermally altered calcareous sediments and limestone lithologies. The regional geology reflects the position of the Korean peninsula on the eastern margin of the North China-Korean platform underlain by three Archean-aged blocks separated by mobile thrust belts of Phanerozoic age.

Local Geology

Lithology

Sangdong Mine is located on the southern limb of the regional Baegunsan syncline. Precambrian age schistose lithologies form the basement to the area and which outcrops to the south of Sangdong Mine.

Unconformably overlying the basement rocks are the Paleozoic sediments of the Josean Supergroup comprised of two Formations, the basal Jangsan Quartzite Formation and the overlying conformable Myobong Slate Formation. The Jangsan Quartzite crops out at the entrance of the mine and is white, grey or pink, fine to coarse grained, with scattered pebbles and thin pebble layers developed in places. It varies in thickness from 50m to 200m and is thickest in the Sangdong area. The Myobong Slate is comprised of brown, dark grey and black slate with several thin limestone beds that are developed towards the top of the 80m to 150m thick slate package. The limestone beds increase in frequency towards the top of the Myobong Slate Formation. It is within the limestone beds that skarn hosted tungsten mineralization is developed.

The milky white limestone beds of the Pungchon Limestone Formation which forms the basal formation of the Great Limestone Series conformably overlies the Myobong Slate Formation and is between 150m to 200m thick.

At Sangdong, a biotite granite was intersected during exploration drilling at 700m below surface. It is believed that fluids derived from this granite were responsible for the molybdenum and tungsten-molybdenum mineralization in the Jangsan quartzite and skarn mineralization Myobong slate, respectively.

Structure

The Sangdong Mine occurs on the southern limb of the regional Baegunsan syncline which has a predominant east-west strike and dips to the north between 15° and 30°. Historical mapping has recognized two pre-mineralization structures that are believed to be associated with the formation of the Baegunsan syncline. The first is a bedding parallel thrust that is best developed at the hanging-wall contact between the Main Zone (MZ) orebody and slates. This fault is best developed in the central part of the (MZ) orebody but thrust faults have been recognized at the hanging-wall contacts to the Footwall 1, 2 and 3 orebodies (FW1, FW2, FW3). Strike parallel, near vertical shear zones are also developed throughout and across the orebody. These two dominant pre-mineralization faults caused local upwarping of the orebody.

Post mineralization faulting is dominated by a northeast-southwest trending fault set. The frequency and throw of these faults vary across the orebody. Throws across these faults can vary from several centimeters to around 30m. It is these faults that control the deeply incised northeast-southwest trending valleys in the Sangdong area.

Both concordant and discordant veins are developed throughout the Sangdong Mine. It is these veins that host molybdenite mineralization within the tungsten skarn.




Alteration and Mineralization

The tungsten mineralization of the Sangdong deposit is contained within four tabular, bedding-conformable skarn horizons with the Myobong Slate, namely, the Hanging-wall Zone (HW), MZ, FW1, FW2, FW3. The mineralised zone strikes east-west and dips to the north at between 15° and 30° for maximum strike and dip extensions of 1.3km and 1.5km, respectively, and outcrops at approximately 650m elevation on the property.

The HW mineralization is developed at the contact between the underlying Myobong Slate and the overlying Pungchon Limestone Formation. This mineralization varies in thickness between 10m and 30m, but is known to be up to 100m thick where skarn mineralization extends into the overlying limestone of the Punchong Formation. It has not been fully tested due to bad ground conditions.

The MZ orebody which has been extensively mined lies 20m below the hanging-wall contact and is between 4m and 6 m thick.

The FW1 mineralization is between 0.3m and 0.8m and lies 2m below the MZ orebody. The FW1 has only been mined in places where it has coalesced with the MZ orebody. Approximately 40m below the MZ orebody lies the FW2 orebody with an average thickness of 5m. The FW3 orebody is comprised of between two and four lenses of skarn mineralization, each approximately 0.3-0.5m in thickness and occurs 5m below the FW2 orebody. The current defined resources are confined to the MZ, FW2 and FW3 orebodies.

The skarn orebodies are comprised of five main minerals being, quartz, white mica, amphibole, pyroxene and garnet. These minerals have been grouped into three alteration types: quartz-mica, amphibole and pyroxene-garnet. The orebodies are zoned both along strike and down dip from a central quartz-mica zone, through the amphibole to the peripheral pyroxene-garnet zone. It is important to note that within each macroscopic alteration zone, microscopic alteration zones can occur.

The tungsten grade varies from ≥3% WO3 in the quartz-mica alteration zone, gradually decreasing to 1-1.5% WO3 in the amphibole zone through to ~0.3% WO3 in the outer pyroxene-garnet alteration zone.

The main tungsten mineral is scheelite (calcium tungstate, CaWO4), accounting for >95% of the contained tungsten, with minor wolframite. Molybdenite is present throughout as a subsidiary to the tungsten mineralization, more abundantly occurring below the skarn mineralization near the underlying granite and mainly hosted in the Jangsan quartzite. Minor bismuth and gold have been historically recovered.

http://www.woulfemining.com/s/Sangdong.asp