Tungsten West, the company aiming to restart production at the Hemerdon tungsten-tin mine in Devon, UK, released its development and economic plans to bring the project back online.

On 30 May 2025, Tungsten West confirmed, via the London Stock Exchange, that it had concluded its development and economic planning for the restart of operations at the Hemerdon tungsten-tin project. The plan provides key insights into the project’s economics, resources, and reserves, and precedes a full feasibility study expected in the second half of 2025.

Tungsten West's newly published plan outlines robust project economics for the Hemerdon mine restart. The base case scenario estimates a post-tax Net Present Value of US$190M at a 7.5% discount rate, with an Internal Rate of Return of 29.3%. The life-of-mine post-tax cash flow is projected at US$456M, based on an ammonium paratungstate (APT) price of US$400/mtu. The mine is expected to operate over an 11-year life, followed by four years of stockpile reclaim and an additional 12 years of premium aggregate sales.  The total financing requirement for the restart is estimated at US$93M, supported by approximately US$300M in historical capital investment. Tungsten West is currently in discussions with multiple parties regarding project funding and anticipates closing its fundraising efforts by the end of 2025. Once funding is secured, operations could resume within approximately 12 months. 

On the production side, Hemerdon is expected to process 3.5Mt of ore per year at full ramp-up, producing an average of 3,320tpy of WO₃-in-concentrate and 462tpy of Sn-in-concentrate.  Restarting operations at Hemerdon would represent a significant new source of tungsten outside of China. According to Project Blue, the project’s full ramp-up would account for approximately 18% of global ex-China mine supply. This comes at a critical time, as the non-Chinese tungsten market is experiencing a supply bottleneck following China’s export restrictions on tungsten products, which were implemented in February. Consequently, at the time of writing, European APT prices have risen by almost 25% since the start of the year, reflecting the tightening supply. The restart of Hemerdon has the potential to ease some of this pressure and enhance the resilience of Western supply chains.