Approvals from the state Department of Environment and Heritage Protection announced today relate to a processing capacity of up to 3 million tonnes per annum at the site’s Hard Rock project and the extraction of ore from 12Mt of stockpiled material.

The development represents the final permitting required to immediately begin construction and operation of the processing facility.

The company says the approvals allow it to significantly increase production capacity in addition to its tailings reclamation facility.

“The approval for the plan of operations is the final document required towards the development of the stockpile processing phase of our Hard Rock project,” Carbine managing director Jim Morgan said.

“Given the global tungsten supply shortage and growing tensions around traditional Asian tungsten supply sources, Mt Carbine is well positioned, having a ready supply of tungsten concentrates from its historically proven large-scale mine.

“This provides Carbine with a realistic and significant global advantage and the opportunity to become a leading low-cost, low-risk long-term free market tungsten supplier.”

The company has tied the likelihood of a successful stockpile treatment and open pit mining operation at the site to the fact that the same orebody was profitably mined for 13 years by previous operators before a price collapse, due to oversupply from China.

Mt Carbine project is located 120km by sealed road northwest of the port of Cairns.

A recent review of the project resource indicated that 18Mt of indicated material with a grade of 0.14 tungsten trioxide could be reclassified as probable ore reserve.

Last month, the company placed 12.9 million shares to raise $A709,750 for Hard Rock, noting it was in advanced stages of negotiations with a range of potential project funding partners.

Shares in Carbine were last trading 17.5% higher at 4.7c.