Playfair Mining Ltd., a Vancouver based mining company, continues to advance rapidly towards its goal of becoming one of the world’s principal developers of new high-grade tungsten resources.
Tungsten is a highly durable, hard and temperature resistant, steel-grey metal, and one of the heaviest and highest melting of all elements. It is used in tungsten carbide for wear, oil drilling, mining and cutting tools, specialty steels, catalysts, armor, ordnance, green bullets, light bulb filaments and electrodes. Global demand for tungsten has increased rapidly, with China the largest consumer and producer of tungsten in the world. As a result, tungsten prices have surged in the past two years from US $60 to the current level, exceeding US $280 of Metric Tonne Unit (MTU) of Ammonium Paratungstate (APT).
Don Moore, Director, Charlie Dearin, prospector and geologist, Jim Harris, Consulting Geologist and Neil Briggs, President and Director in the field at the Grey River Tungsten Project
Founded in 1995, Playfair has a highly experienced management team, including D. Neil Briggs, President and Director, Donald G. Moore, Director and James Robertson, Director. Mr. Robertson also serves as a director of tungsten producer, Primary Metals. All three men bring a wealth of knowledge and practical experience to the company. The partnership of D. Neil Briggs and Donald G. Moore dates back to when Mr. Moore acted as Mr. Brigg’s stockbroker years ago. Mr. Briggs jokes, “What do you think of that? Still talking to your broker after 35 years!”
Mr. Briggs has an extensive geological background. He has held senior exploration positions with Falconbridge Nickel Mines Ltd., Manitoba Mineral Resources Ltd., and moved on to manage several of his own companies. When highlighting his partner’s impressive discoveries at Manitoba Minerals, Mr. Moore states, “He to this day still carries around a piece of drill core that exemplifies how challenging it was at times!”
Mr. Moore, a former stockbroker and economic developer, launched a career as a consultant to the mining industry. He lobbied for government funding on the Kirkland Lake initiative, and successfully grew a $5 million local program into a $400 million Ontario program. His expertise includes organizing, restructuring, promoting and negotiating complex acquisitions and joint ventures for mining companies, in addition to managing several of his own companies.
Mr. Moore attributes the success of Playfair Mining to the diverse backgrounds of himself and Mr. Briggs, and their knowledge of people in and related to the mining industry. With regard to Mr. Brigg’s longevity in geology, he states, “We can reach into a barrel of knowledge from the people that we know, and get the right person for the right job.”
When we speak to Neil Briggs and Don Moore, we are struck by their mutual respect and trust for each other and their focused goals for the company.
Playfair currently controls four advanced stage tungsten projects, including Risby, Lened, and Clea, in the Yukon, and Grey River, in Newfoundland. Historical resources total over 3.7 million MTU’s of tungsten (an MTU of tungsten is worth approximately $260 USD) and there is considerable potential to add more with further exploration.
Grey River Tungsten Vein 1981
Grey River Tungsten Vein_ 2005
In 2004, Playfair expanded its search for lucrative property in Newfoundland. Prospector and field geologist, Charles Dearin, brought the Grey River property to Playfair for its gold similar to the “Pogo” deposit in Alaska. The Grey River Tungsten deposit came as a bonus. Tungsten mineralization was first found on the Grey River property in 1956, and a significant potential for more reserves exists. Playfair owns 100% interest in Grey River.
Granite Lake Property Map
Granite Lake, Lake Sediment Geochemistry Which Shows Tungsten Concentrations
To supplement the Grey River Project, Playfair has recently acquired 100% interest in an area around Granite Lake, Newfoundland, which contains twenty-two well-documented tungsten sources.
Playfair’s timely entrance into the tungsten market has proven quite lucrative, and has significantly increased their stock value and pushed them closer to their goal of becoming top developers of tungsten. Mr. Briggs states, “We’re doing all sorts of nefarious things, and ending up in strange parts of the world in bad times, but the good times are coming around again!”
Playfair Report’s The Following Total Historic Tungsten resources*
| Grey River (Newfoundland): |
473,000 tonnes of 0.97% WO3 (458,500 MTUs) |
| Risby (Yukon): |
2,700,000 tonnes of 0.81% WO3 (2,187,000 MTUs) |
| Lened (NWT): |
737,000 tonnes of 1.14% WO3 (840,200 MTUs) |
| Clea (NWT): |
257,000 tonnes of 0.93% WO3 (239,000 MTUs) |
In addition, Playfair controls an early stage tungsten project at Granite Lake with excellent exploration targets already identified.
In the short term, the company's key priority is to advance its Grey River tungsten deposit aggressively toward production.
* Estimates of tungsten resources are historical in nature, predate and are noncompliant with NI 43-101. Playfair is not treating the historical estimate as current mineral resources or reserves. Playfair has not undertaken any independent investigation of the resource estimates nor has independently analyzed the results of the previous exploration work in order to verify the resources, and therefore the historical estimates should not be relied upon. However, Playfair believes that these historical estimates provide a conceptual indication of the potential of the occurrences and are relevant to ongoing exploration.
More information can be obtained by going to playfairmining.com