Cantung Mine is a tungsten

Tungsten

Tungsten , also known as wolfram , is a chemical element with the chemical symbol W and atomic number 74.A hard, rare metal under standard conditions when uncombined, tungsten is found naturally on Earth only in chemical compounds. It was identified as a new element in 1781, and first isolated as...

 producer in the Nahanni

Nahanni National Park Reserve

Nahanni National Park Reserve in the Dehcho Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada, approximately west of Yellowknife, protects a portion of the Mackenzie Mountains Natural Region. The centrepiece of the park is the South Nahanni River. Four noteworthy canyons reaching in depth, called...

 area of the Northwest Territories

Northwest Territories

The Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada.Located in northern Canada, the territory borders Canada's two other territories, Yukon to the west and Nunavut to the east, and three provinces: British Columbia to the southwest, and Alberta and Saskatchewan to the south...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, located northeast of Watson Lake

Watson Lake, Yukon

Watson Lake is a town at historical mile 635 on the Alaska Highway in the southeastern Yukon close to the British Columbia border. Population in December 2004 was 1,547 ....

 in the Flat River Valley of the Selwyn Range

Selwyn Range (Canada)

The Selwyn Range is a mountain range in the Canadian Rockies in British Columbia. A subrange of the Park Ranges of the Continental Ranges, it is located west of Jasper National Park, east of Valemount and south of Mount Robson Provincial Park....

 close to the Yukon

Yukon

Yukon is the westernmost and smallest of Canada's three federal territories. It was named after the Yukon River. The word Yukon means "Great River" in Gwich’in....

 border. Tungsten was originally discovered in the area in 1954 by prospectors. Cantung Mine operated from 1962 to 1986, again from 2002 to 2003, and most recently reopened in 2005. Production was suspended October 2009 and the company plans to resume production October 2010.

1962—1986

The original company that developed the mine was Canada Tungsten Mining Corporation Limited, with Cantung being a short abbreviated form of the company name. The small community of Tungsten

Tungsten, Northwest Territories

The townsite of Tungsten is located at Cantung Mine in the Northwest Territories. It is accessible from Watson Lake, Yukon. Tungsten was built in 1961 and the tungsten mine went into operation in 1962 as a large open pit mine high in the Mackenzie Mountains. It originally consisted of several small...

 was established for workers and their families. It was an open pit

Open-pit mining

Open-pit mining or opencast mining refers to a method of extracting rock or minerals from the earth by their removal from an open pit or borrow....

 operation until 1974 when the newly discovered underground deposit was brought to production. It closed due to low tungsten prices in 1986. It was purchased by North American Tungsten Corporation of Vancouver in 1997. Stephen Leahy, Chair and CEO, recognized the potential for Cantung tungsten production because 85% of the world's tungsten reserves are in China:

"I just had to believe that at some point in time, something was going to happen -- and of course several years ago China passed a law against exporting raw material tungsten. They are moving up the value chain. They want to do the refining in the first state. Pretty soon they will want to sell you the finished goods, the saw blades, the drill bits. If you in the West have no raw material, how are you going to make those things?"—Stephen Leahy, 2007

2002—2003

With higher prices in the new millennium, the new owner, North American Tungsten Corporation, reopened the mine for production in 2002. The mine again closed in 2003 when the company's creditors recalled their loans, putting the company on the verge of bankruptcy.

2005—present

After a re-finance, the mine reopened September 1, 2005. By November 2007, North American Tungsten stated that Cantung had approximately two years of tungsten reserves left, but, combined with its Mactung operation, the two hold 15% of the world's known tungsten. Leahy is optimistic:

"We've seen the price rise from $50 a unit (22 kilograms) to $250 a unit in two and a half years... This mine started in the early 1960s and it has been taken care of quite well, but you are still dealing with very old equipment... China used to say it had an infinite amount of tungsten. Then a few years ago they said they had about 100 years supply at the current rate. Then last year at the tungsten conference [China] said they were less than 20 years and they better start looking. Their grade has been dropping as mines mature. They haven't been reinvesting. They have environmental issues, and you can't just bring a mine on in two months. Even over there it takes years. Their costs are rising, as ours are."—Stephen Leahy, 2007

External links

• North American Tungsten