VKA produces 62.5% tungsten concentrates

Published 28-MAY-2026 14:04 P.M.

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VKA produces 62.5% tungsten concentrates

Our US tungsten Investment Viking Mines (ASX: VKA | OTC: VKALF) just delivered its third metwork milestone in three months.

The combined gravity-plus-flotation circuit at VKA's Linka Tungsten Project in Nevada produced a 62.5% tungsten concentrate at 59.8% recovery from a 1.2% feed grade.

That is a considerable improvement on the 56.4% tungsten at 46.0% recovery result from the previous round of testwork in March.

So with effectively the same starting material, VKA has today seen a nice boost to the results.

A reminder that VKA’s project has historic production of a combined ~123,000t at 0.54% tungsten grades from an open pit, so this isn’t applying the processing to a completely unknown resource.

We are Invested in VKA to see VKA rapidly define and get into production this project, taking a faster approach by producing a high grade concentrate it could ship to refiners for further processing.

Between 1955 and 1956, 360 tonne per day was milled from VKA’s project from an open pit mine - here is a photo of that old pit in December when VKA acquired the project, where the samples were taken from:

(source)

On top of the floatation circuit addition, the standalone gravity stage was refined again, with the Mozley table now producing 66.6% tungsten concentrate on its own

Up from 63.6% tungsten reported in March, which we covered here.

This was done on a 10kg sample - five times the size of the 2kg sample used in the previous testwork, which is a key detail as it expands on the prior results and improves the confidence.

Repeatability at larger scale is what de-risks a flowsheet ahead of plant design, and it’s what we wanted VKA to show ahead of its maiden drill program starting in June.

Here is a look at part of the testing, on a Wilfley table:

(source)

In the last metwork update back in late March, VKA had produced a 63.6% tungsten gravity concentrate.

This is a premium grade by the tungsten industry standards of 50% tungsten concentrate mentioned by VKA in the announcement, and that was from only on the gravity stream.

The big note on the prior results was that VKA was looking to improve on the recovery percentage, which is where today’s numbers have shown a big improvement.

Prior, gravity separation alone was only getting ~42% of the tungsten out of the ore and leaving the rest in the tails (waste).

This meant that more than half the tungsten in the rock was being discarded into the tailings stream.

So VKA followed these results up and ran a first-pass rougher/cleaner flotation circuit on those gravity tails to target the tungsten that gravity couldn't catch.

This has added another 17.1% recovery at 54.3% tungsten - which, when combined with the gravity concentrate, lifts total recovery to 59.8% at a blended 62.5% tungsten.

Importantly the combined concentrate sits comfortably above the >50% tungsten saleable threshold for scheelite, so it’s a product a customer would actually buy.

As it is comfortably above the 50% threshold (at over 60%), this could make VKA’s product attract added attention, assuming the results continue to scale up.

Here is a look at the updated process flowsheet from today:

(source)

Why we care about the "simple flowsheet" point

A big part of the reason we Invested in VKA is the plan to keep the processing plant simple, i.e. being gravity-led, modular, low-CAPEX, all things VKA has flagged before.

Critical minerals projects often struggle in the processing stage, where exotic metallurgical challenges can blow out CAPEX (capital spend) and push first production years down the track.

VKA's "Rapid-Start" model is aiming to avoid that path entirely and today’s results continue to indicate this is still on track to be achieved.

Gravity separation (Wilfley table to a Mozley table) is a proven 100+-year-old mineral processing technology, the same kind of circuit that produced tungsten from this very pit in the 1950s:

(source)

The new flotation step is a single rougher/cleaner stage on the gravity tails, so no heavy chemicals that require a leaching circuit.

That combination is what's now being fed into the conceptual processing study underway with ~$5.3BN Downer Group's Mineral Technologies subsidiary, the group VKA brought in to design the modular plant.

For peer context, $1.3BN EQ Resources' Mt Carbine asset hit ~85% recoveries at ~50% concentrate grade in 2023:

(source)

VKA isn't there yet on recovery, but on concentrate grade it is already producing a premium product, so given this it may already be at a comfortable level.

On this, VKA has flagged that the next round of flotation reagent optimisation is targeting >70% recovery while holding >50% tungsten grade.

If that target is achieved in the next round of testwork, then VKA's flowsheet performance starts to look directly comparable to producing tungsten operations.

The tungsten price keeps moving up

Tungsten pricing has continued to grind higher while VKA has been working through metwork.

CIF Rotterdam 88.5% APT is now at US$3,050/mtu (US$305,000/t) up from ~US$800/mtu when VKA acquired the Nevada project in December 2025.

That is a move of ~3.8x in the ~6 months since VKA acquired the asset.

(source)(source)(source)

The reason the price keeps climbing is the same reason we made VKA part of our US critical minerals exposure:

Tungsten is on the US Critical Minerals List with zero domestic US production.
China alone controls ~84% of global supply.
The REEShore Act mandate that bans Chinese-origin tungsten from US DoD supply chains takes effect in December 2026 - roughly seven months from today.

VKA's announcement today specifically called out:

(source)

This is the type of framing that VKA will need to push for possible Pentagon project funding which has been flagged at US$100M to US$500M for domestic critical minerals projects.

A premium-grade saleable scheelite concentrate, produced on US soil, via a simple low-CAPEX flowsheet is what today's result moves closer to showing.

This comes at a good time, with VKA set to get drilling by the end of this quarter (so next month).

We covered the above and more in a Deep Dive article earlier in the week: VKA: First drilling at USA tungsten project in over 40 years. Tungsten price hits new all-time highs. Trumps invest in a tungsten mine.

VKA’s Managing Director and CEO Julian Woodcock gave a really good update on the current US tungsten industry in a recent webinar here:

Viking Mines (ASX: VKA | OTC: VKALF) Investor Webinar | April 2026

What we want to see next from VKA:

Here are the key milestones we want to see VKA hit over the coming months:

🔄 Processing concept study with Mineral Technologies

Mineral Technologies (a subsidiary of the ~$5BN Downer Group) is working on flowsheet design and CAPEX/OPEX estimates.

VKA did mention today that a consultant (TOMRA) had been engaged in Germany to test ore sorting on samples from VKA’s project.

IF the tech works on VKA’s samples it could improve recoveries in whatever processing circuit VKA ends up designing.

Here are the milestones we are tracking for this:

✅ Rougher gravity testwork - 16x upgrade (source)
✅ Cleaner gravity testwork - 53x upgrade to 63.6% WO3 (source)
🔄 Cleaner flotation testwork - Today’s results here, further optimisation ongoing
🔄 Ore sorting testwork - ~40kg sample being tested
🔄 3D geological model - being finalised
🔄 Modular "Rapid-Start" gravity circuit design - to feed into development studies

🔲 Maiden drilling program (late June quarter).

VKA last week got approval from the Federal Agencies for drill permitting on a 63 hole program. (source)

So now VKA can lock in the drilling contractors and the schedule, which remains on track to mobilise to site in June with drilling in the same month, we should see drill pad preparation works begin in June also.