The CBC is reporting that a company in New Brunswick has found a mineable ore body that it proposes to work for tungsten. It would appear that the most important user for the product is the nation of China. In fact the company homepage has a Chinese language link about the project. I knew about zinc and copper (and in fact antimony but we don't mine it anymore) but this is the first that I had heard about tungsten in New Brunswick.
Tungsten has a number of uses that relate to its physical and chemical properties of high density, hardness and relative inertness. It seems to be an important component of speciality steels where performance at high temperatures is important. There is an alloy called high speed steel that can be up to 18% tungsten. Of course, the feasibility of the mine is related to the demand for the metal and the cost of mining in New Brunswick.
Once again we will need to carry out the dreadful algebra to determine if the upheaval of our environment (and probably public financial support) will equal 250 resource based jobs. just look at the GeoDex webpage picture of the mine sight and it just looks like New Brunswick. Of course you could argue that NB has lots of scrub forest and could easily live with a couple hundred acres less if it meant real jobs. I am glad however that a full environmental impact statement is going to be done. I would also like to know if this is simply an ore extraction or if there will be some processing of the ore before it leaves Canada.
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