QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

The lure of Wolfram

When mining began in 1894 at Wolfram Camp, near Mareeba in the Atherton Tablelands, it was “the first systematic working of the mineral in the British Empire outside the Mother Country”. Its commercial production was originally limited to separating the fine particles of wolframite from the quartz until the early 1900s, when mineral processing technology improved significantly. In 1900, tungsten concentrate was an essential part of alloyed steel production. Developed in Sheffield, and then in France, the first high quality steel of the time was presented at the Paris World Exhibition of 1900, and Germany quickly introduced it for its naval program. This growth in the German steel industry triggered a worldwide search for tungsten and identified the minerals potential in northern Queensland for purchases and then direct investment.

In 2011, Deutsche Rohstoff AG acquired Wolfram Camp Mining Pty Ltd, initially acquiring the 85% stake held by Planet Metals – the holding company of the mine and surrounding tenements – then consolidating ownership with the 15% interest held by Tropical Metals. The mine and plant were recommissioned in late 2011, with the first concentrates shipment assembled in February 2012 and delivered to Global Tungsten and Powders Corporation in the USA in March. Wolfram Camp was officially reopened in a ceremony on 10 July and, after achieving full productivity in the second half of 2012, the Wolfram Camp Mine will be on track to deliver an estimated 7,000 tonnes over four years (about 2% of the global supply of tungsten concentrates), as well as approximately 800 tonnes of molybdenum concentrates.

The bulk of the output, worth a quarter of a million pounds, was exported to Germany and Britain, and the mine produced about 2,540 tonnes of tungsten concentrate in the decade before World War I. Perhaps surprisingly, in 1913, the year before Europe ignited in war, the developing Germany received three-quarters of the total 800 tonnes exported from Australia. Prominent quartz crystal protruding from an exposed vein in the mine wall at Wolfram Camp reveals the presence of tungsten, which must be separated from the quartz (main background).

Above: Deutsche Rohstoff’s Dr Titus Gebel with Tablelands Regional Council Mayor Rosa Lee Long at the opening. Below: each bag in the first shipment weighs an average 1.2 tonnes.

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