Tungsten West PLC (AIM:TUN) has received the final capital expenditure budget and construction schedule from its contractor, Fairport Engineering Limited, and has also received quotes for the final long-lead time items.
The company is now placing orders for long-lead items for its Hemerdon project in Devon for delivery in the first quarter of 2023.
Plant upgrades are on schedule for completion in the second quarter of 2023.
The remaining capital requirement is estimated at £31.5mln, excluding a 20% contingency of £6.3mln.
This capex estimate is significantly below the projected forecast at the time the project was paused in April 2022. The material line items are set out below:
The company continues to progress towards final documentation for the previously announced signed term sheet for a US$30mln royalty sale. It is also engaged with a number of specialist asset-backed finance providers and is seeking up to £10mln of asset-backed loans from these sources.
Cash at hand as of 30th September 2022 was £14.5mln.
Tungsten West is also actively pursuing options for wind and solar power generation at the Hemerdon site and nearby. As announced on 13 September 2022, the company has identified a 50-acre site within 1.2km of Hemerdon that is suitable for the installation of 9MW-12MW of solar energy production, and three potential sites suitable for wind turbine installation. Scoping studies for both are underway.