China’s raw material crunch, limited global supply of tungsten ore concentrates and the great worldwide demand for tungsten products makes Tiberon’s Vietnam Tungsten Property very well positioned.

Location of Tiberon’s Nui Phao mining project in Vietnam

As Chinese tungsten sources dwindle and internal demand rises, Tiberon Minerals, with its 77.5% interest in the Nui Phao mining project in Vietnam, is poised to become one of the world’s largest and lowest cost producers of tungsten. 

Tungsten, the metal used in light bulb filaments, oil and mining drilling compacts, tungsten carbide cutting tools, specialty and tool steels, ordnance, and armor,  has had a dramatic history; tied to China’s meteoric rise in the global economy, and a change in China’s price philosophies.  China's tungsten manufacturers, citing a shortage of tungsten concentrate, have raised offer prices by over 100 percent in the last months to levels not seen since the mid-1970s, when pre-deflation prices reached US$285/mtu.for APT in the USA.   To understand this material, and how it has changed, one must first look at the trade history between China and the global market.

The price of ammonium paratungstate (APT), an intermediate tungsten chemical product, has tripled this year.  China provides about 80 percent of the world supply of APT. Over the past twenty-five years, China has achieved this corner on the APT market by being the dominating tungsten miner. They provided raw and intermediate tungsten materials at lower prices than mines and manufacturers could anywhere else.  This caused the closing of most non-Chinese mines and APT producing plants throughout the Eighties and Nineties.

In the Early Eighties, China sought to gain currency by selling ore concentrates at very low prices.  They believed that keeping ore prices below 40 dollars a STU would put their foreign mining competitors out of business.  This was a successful technique. Almost all the western mines were closed. The price of tungsten ore concentrates was also suppressed in the nineties by the sale of the Russian tungsten ore stockpile. A 150% tariff, imposed on ore from china by the USA, helped save the Bishop Mine in California from closing for about ten years.

China then switched from exporting ore concentrates to APT and dominated the world APT production. The increasing internal demand in China for tungsten and the decreasing supply of tungsten ore concentrates has led China to increase prices of intermediate products. China is focusing more on downstream products, from tungsten filaments for light bulbs to cemented carbide parts.  This has spelled higher prices for US and European tungsten manufacturing companies, but has increased the opportunities for new mining ventures throughout the world.

A three dimensional model illustrating the open pit mining technique that will be used to mine ore from the Nui Phao mining project in Vietnam. Tungsten, fluorite and bismuth will be mined. Open pit mining and the associated mineral and metal extraction helps to yield low mining costs.

Tiberon Minerals began exploration in Vietnam in early 1997.  They now find themselves in an enviable position with some of the lowest mining costs in the industry, as tungsten prices soar.

A well laid out environmentally safe site plan has been designed.

Higher tungsten pricing is the result of supply restrictions out of China, the largest producer, combined with new applications for these strategic commodities and continued demand for the standard tungsten products. Through development of Nui Phao, Tiberon is well positioned to become the largest single producer of tungsten and a major supplier of acid-grade fluorspar. Production of these strategic commodities will enable Tiberon to capitalize on the need for non-Chinese sources of supply to meet rising demand.

	Mario Caron, Professional Engineer, Is the President and CEO and Director of Tiberon. Caron is a Mining Engineer with 30 years experience in mine development, government relations, and project financing. He has served as President and CEO of MSV Resources Inc., President of VSM Exploration Inc. and President of Nova-Cogesco Resources Inc.

The timely development of the Nui Phao mine is Tiberon’s top priority, and will be the focus of their activities in 2005. Basic engineering is scheduled to begin shortly; the first step toward commercial production, which is expected in early 2008.

A photo of Water Henry, CFO talking to a potential investor at the PDAC 2005 show.

Walter Henry, CFO of Tiberon, told us at the PDAC 2005 meeting that. Operating cost is estimated at US$7.92 per ton of ore. For the two principal products, tungsten and acid-grade fluorspar concentrates, average annual cash costs are expected to be US$13 per MTU and US$26 per ton respectively; placing Nui Phao at the low end of the cost curve for these products.

Walter also said that Nui Phao will be developed as a conventional open pit mining operation using 90 ton haul trucks. A total of 3.5 million tons of ore will be mined annually from the single open pit with a waste-to-ore ratio of 1.8:1. To date, a proven and probable ore reserve of 53.1 million tons has been delineated. The deposit itself is flat-lying, and potential exists to increase the current mine life through the conversion of 27.4 million tons of inferred resources into proven and probable reserves. The deposit has been defined over a 1.7 km strike length and width greater than 400 meters and remains open to the west. Additional tungsten/fluorspar exploration potential has been defined on the Nui Phao property, and will be evaluated in due course.

Tiberon announced, at their Annual Meeting on May 10, 2005,  the following highlights:

      • Completion of the Interim Feasibility Study confirming that Nui Phao is poised to become a major low-cost tungsten and fluorspar producer.

     • Approval of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).

     • Acceptance of a proposal from WestLB AG for a US$10 million bridge loan facility.

      • Approval of the Nui Phao Project Resettlement Policy.

      • Continued strong commodity prices based on solid supply and demand fundamentals.

       The completion of the Final Feasibility Study

WestLB AG and Fortis Bank S.A./N.V. appointed as exclusive structuring banks and lead arrangers for the debt financial of Nui Phao

On May 17, 2005 Tiberon Minerals Ltd. (TBR:TSX), on behalf of the Nui Phao Mining Joint Venture Company Ltd. (“Nuiphaovica”), announced the signing of two tungsten offtake contracts with Osram Sylvania (“SYLVANIA”), one of the world’s largest lighting and tungsten manufacturers with tungsten production operations in Towanda, Pennsylvania and Bruntal, Czech Republic. Under terms of the initial contract (“Base Contract”), SYLVANIA has agreed to purchase approximately 44% of projected tungsten concentrate production for a minimum of five years from Tiberon’s Nui Phao tungsten/fluorspar project in northern Vietnam. Concurrent with this, the parties have also entered into an option agreement (“Option”) giving SYLVANIA the option, subject to certain conditions, to increase its offtake to 100% of tungsten production. Should both the Base Contract and Option be fully exercised, the agreements would cover 15 years and represent up to US$1.2 billion in tungsten revenue alone to Nuiphaovica based on current ammonium paratungstate (APT) pricing.

Should SYLVANIA exercise the option, within an exclusive period that is mutually acceptable to both SYLVANIA and Tiberon, it will also make a non-refundable multi-million dollar project investment upon satisfaction of certain conditions, including finalization of bank financing for mine construction.

“These contracts are an extremely important step toward putting Nui Phao into production and toward achieving Tiberon’s goal of becoming among the world’s largest single producers of tungsten concentrate,” said Mario Caron, Tiberon’s president and CEO. “The signing of offtake agreements such as these is an important step in securing project financing and allows Nuiphaovica to benefit from the security of a floor price in the early years of the project while retaining upside in the tungsten price which has risen by more than 180% thus far in 2005.”

In addition, the signing of these offtake contracts with SYLVANIA will allow Siemens Project Ventures GmbH, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Siemens AG, headquartered in Munich, Germany, the opportunity to evaluate an equity investment in Nuiphaovica.

On July 12, 2005, Tiberon Minerals Ltd. (TBR:TSX) , on behalf of the Nui Phao Mining Joint Venture Company Ltd. (Nuiphaovica), has announced completion of a positive Final Feasibility Study (the Study) for its 77.5%-owned Nui Phao tungsten/fluorspar deposit in Vietnam. Prepared by Aker Kvaerner, the Study highlights improved metallurgical recoveries and lower operating costs producing a higher rate of return and net present value.

"The Study favourably concludes that an open-pit mine can now produce 76,000 tonnes of tungsten trioxide, 3.5 million tonnes of acid-grade fluorspar concentrate, 32,000 tonnes of bismuth, along with copper and gold over a 16.3-year mine life, generating a 23.6% rate of return. "

“The results of the study confirm that Tiberon will become a leader in the tungsten/fluorspar industry as one of the world’s largest and lowest-cost producers of these strategic commodities,” said Tiberon’s CEO Mario Caron. “With the recent receipt of our Mining License and Environmental Impact Assessment approval earlier this year, we remain firmly on track to meet our projected start-up and commissioning in the latter part of 2007.”

Using the financial model developed in the Final Feasibility Study and recent commodity prices for tungsten (Low European APT - US$285/mtu), fluorspar (US$175/tonne FOB Vietnam) and bismuth (US$3.75/lb), the internal rate of return increases to 39% and the payback period shortens significantly to 2.5 years. Based on these assumptions, the after tax net present value (7.5%) of Tiberon’s 77.5% interest is CDN$607 million (exchange rate of CDN$0.80).

Tiberon Minerals is positioned to be a key producer of tungsten ore for the global tungsten market in years to come.

On June 30, 2005 – Tiberon Minerals Ltd. (TBR:TSX) and its minority joint venture partners were granted a Mining License by the government of Vietnam to develop and mine the Nui Phao

tungsten/fluorspar deposit. Witnessed by His Excellency Phan Van Khai, Prime Minister of Vietnam, the Mining License was officially granted to Mario Caron, Tiberon’s President and CEO, during ceremonies at the Vietnam-Canada Business Forum in Toronto yesterday.

The Mining License, extending over 0.9 square kilometres, covers the known proven and probable reserves and is valid for a 30-year period. The Mining License replaces Tiberon’s Exploration License and is the last major permit needed prior to the start of construction.

“We are delighted to have been granted the Nui Phao Mining License in such a timely manner following approval of our Environmental Impact Assessment in March,” said Tiberon’s CEO Mario Caron.

“Tiberon and its joint venture partners received tremendous support from government officials in both Vietnam and Canada throughout the permitting process. We will continue to work closely with regulators and the local community in Vietnam to ensure sustainable development at Nui Phao as we look toward commercial production in the first quarter of 2008.”

“With receipt of the Mining License, Tiberon can move forward with project financing, construction, commissioning and start-up of the Nui Phao mine upon completion of the final feasibility study in the next few weeks,” concluded Mr. Caron.

Tiberon and its partners in the Nui Phao Joint Venture Mining Company Ltd. (Nuiphaovica) are

developing the Nui Phao mine in an environment of rising prices and solid fundamentals for its principal commodities tungsten and fluorspar production for a minimum of five years would cover 15 years and represent up to US$1.2 billion in tungsten revenue alone to Nuiphaovica, based on current ammonium paratungstate (APT) pricing.