Tungsten goes up

Share price up for CanTung-MacTung owner

Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Feb 19/01) - Stock in the company which owns a huge NWT-based tungsten resource is on the rise.

North American Tungsten Corporation Ltd. hit a year-high last Thursday closing at 70 cents.

CanTung mine facts: CanTung was discovered in 1954 Open pit operations started in 1962 The community of Tungsten, home to CanTung mine workers, was accessed via the Yukon's Nahanni Ridge Road Production was suspended in 1986 Operations have not resumed since a 1986 strike In the mid-1980s, China flooded the market with low-price tungsten In 1997, North American Tungsten bought CanTung and MacTung from Aur Resources CanTung, in the Deh Cho, is 170 kilometres southeast of MacTung, which is in the Sahtu. Both are on the NWT-Yukon border Tungsten is commonly used for filaments in electric lamps and for alloying steel

For months the company's stock languished around 15 cents then, in January, it began an impressive climb. Share volume is also up significantly.

North American Tungsten owns the dormant CanTung mine in the Deh Cho and the MacTung deposit in the Sahtu. Both are on the NWT-Yukon border.

The price of tungsten is up sufficiently enough that North American Tungsten is studying the recommissioning of the CanTung mine.

Last week, to prevent a hostile takeover, the company announced a shareholders' rights plan. The plan kicks in if a company or individual acquires 20 per cent of North American Tungsten. Rights plans do not necessarily prevent takeovers but they do give directors time to evaluate bids.

Last September, the company indicated that a concentrate selling price in the range of $55-60 US per 10 kilograms might be sufficient to warrant production re-start. Tungsten has been trading at, or above, that level in recent weeks.

"These encouraging price trends are believed to be

attributable to a series of measures legislated by the Chinese Central Government to restrict the export of

tungsten and increase prices," Udo von Doehren, North American Tungsten president and CEO, said recently.

"These moves by the Chinese come at a time when major releases of strategically stockpiled tungsten raw materials by the Russian Government appear to have dried up."

The trend is extremely positive for North American Tungsten as it owns the Western World's highest-grade ore reserves, he adds.

CanTung and MacTung represent the Western World's largest high-grade proven tungsten reserves and hold 15 per cent of the world's proven tungsten resource.

Tungsten is commonly used for filaments in electric lamps and for alloying steel.