W Resources is on course to hit its production goal at the La Parrilla tungsten project in the southwest of Spain, with crushing equipment arriving on site.

In a project update, the company said overall La Parrilla construction had accelerated during the summer months with construction completion of the crusher, jig and mill on schedule for the December quarter, and completion of the concentrator in the March quarter of next year – the same quarter it plans to start production.

La Parrilla is envisaged as a scalable project, starting up at 2 Mt/y to produce some 2,700 t/y of tungsten concentrate and 500 t/y of tin concentrate, before an expansion to 3.5 Mt/y and beyond.

W’s latest update said capital expenditure was tracking below budget, with engineering and procurement now both over 90% complete.

All major contracts have been placed, with 81.3% of the planned €27.1 million ($31.5 million) spend committed. The company also noted plant civil works were complete, concrete works for the crusher had been laid and works for the jig were underway.

Steel erection for the crusher was advancing quickly, the company said.

The primary Metso equipment for the 350 t/h crushing and screening circuit, which includes four HP300 cone crushers, a C130 jaw crusher, a VF500 vibrating feeder, MB352 rock breaker and MF2473 screen, were on site for “just in time installation”, W said.

W noted that primary allmineral equipment for the jig is arriving on site and allmineral confirmed the jig project was on schedule.

With a throughput of 350 t/h, the two alljig® jigs (one, pictured arriving on site) will provide grading, enrichment and cleaning of the pre-ground ore.

The alljig process involves the feed material initially being fluidised with pulsed water, with the grains graded according to density. The jigs separate the specifically lighter scheelite-poor yield from the specifically heavier scheelite-rich ore from the stratified material bed, allmineral said.

The processing plant, with a capacity of 155 t/h connected to the pre-concentration stage through the alljig jigs, will ensure tailings are separated from the valuable material, thereby achieving a 65% WO3 recovery, the company said.

The fines produced in several processing stages are to be recovered in a separate circuit.