Stockitution

[TRAPPER JIM]

I dont think he bought any of the stock.Just invested in the company mining project.

He may not like gold much, but billionaire Warren Buffet has taken a shining to tungsten – the metal with the highest melting point.

Berkshire Hathaway unit IMC International Metalworking Companies this week agreed to invest around $80-million in TSX V-listed Woulfe Mining’s Sandong project in South Korea, which was once the biggest tungsten producer.

The deal involves IMC buying a 25% stake in the shuttered mine for C$35-million, investing C$19.25-million in a joint venture to build a plant that will produce ammonium paratungstate (APT), the metal’s tradeable form, and agreeing to provide up to C$15.75-million in a loan to fund Woulfe’s share of the capital cost of the plant.

The mine at Sandong as well as the APT plant are set to start producing early in 2013, when the operation will reclaim the title as the world’s biggest producer, accounting for 7% to 10% of global output – and half of non-Chinese supplies, Woulfe CEO Brian Wesson told Mining Weekly Online.

To get there, the company will need to raise around another C$80-million in debt.

Woulfe will look to use a feasibility study due out in “the next few weeks” to do this, with Wesson hoping to finalise the funding around June.

That will bring the total financing for Sandong and the APT plant up to around C$150-million, with capital cost estimates currently at C$135-million.