Apollo Minerals Limited is a responsible mining company developing the Couflens Project in France which includes the historical Salau tungsten mine. The focus of the company is the potential restart of the Salau tungsten mine and the exploration of numerous tungsten and gold targets across the wider region.
The Salau mine was one of the world’s highest-grade tungsten mines, with an average operating grade of 1.5% WO3 during its 15 years of operation. The mine closed in 1986 when tungsten prices were significantly lower than today. The deposit remains open at depth, with potential gold upside.
The Company has digitised a significant database of historical mine information including assay results and logs from more than 1,000 drill holes, allowing the company to construct detailed 3D models and rapidly advance its understanding of the resource and mine.
The available historical information, combined with the Company’s own work, has demonstrated the presence of high grades of gold inside the mine, at surface and in the tailings from former operations.
Work undertaken in recent years has demonstrated that the gold contained in the Salau deposit has potentially been largely underestimated and that the nature of the gold mineralisation had previously not been fully understood.
Extensive drilling and channel sampling programs are planned to confirm historical information, to test for extensions of known areas of tungsten and gold mineralisation and to allow for the publication of resource estimates for tungsten and gold in compliance with the JORC Code.
Apollo Minerals is developing its Projects in accordance with the highest standards of environmental, social, health and safety, and economic management. All work programs are carried out with a strong commitment to both sustainable development and proactive stakeholder engagement as the Company seeks to develop and maintain positive relationships with its host communities and stakeholders.
Mine Entry
Location Map
Tungsten under UV
Uses of Tungsten
Tungsten is the only element harder than diamond. It is 100 times stronger than steel and has one of the highest melting points of any metal: higher than nickel, iron, titanium and vanadium.
It is used in many heavy industries, including aerospace, manufacturing, automotive and military and in most applications it is not substitutable. As a result, tungsten is a strategic metal that developed economies cannot operate without and many governments consider it vital to national security.
Given its unique and valuable properties, mainly as a strengthening agent, the European Union ranked tungsten as one of Europe’s most critical raw materials, with the highest supply risk of all materials on the list.
It is therefore a growing concern that the supply of tungsten is so heavily dominated by China, who control nearly 80% of global supply and consumption.
Key Applications:
- Cemented carbides used in drilling tools and wear-resistant parts (55%)
- Alloy steels and alloys used primarily in tools (21%)
- Fabricated tungsten products e.g. electrical & electronic contacts (18%)
- Chemical applications and products (6%)
More about tungsten visit apollominerals.com
*in concentrate