Location - Imlay, Nevada USA
Ownership - 100% EMC Metals Corp.

Asset Highlights

• Fully constructed underground mine and surface mill facility, 100% owned by EMC,
• NI 43-101 Resource established,
• Mine/mill sized for 1,200 tpd - production capacity of 146,000 MTU WO3 p.a.,
• Located in a historic tungsten-producing district, with excellent infrastructure in place,
• Environmental and operating permits largely in place to re-start facility,
• Strong tungsten price, permitting status, and refurbished mill supports a 12 month, time-to-cash restart.

Asset Status. Springer is a former tungsten producer consisting of a 1,360-ft vertical shaft and underground workings, a 1,200 ton per day mill with automated rod/ball mill grinding and flotation circuits, plus all water rights, and virtually all permits necessary for operation of the facility. The original build cost on the asset in 1981 was $71 million, and EMC has invested approximately $20 million in mill and site refurbishment and upgrading/automation in the last 3 years. While the NI 43-101 resource represents only 3 years of production, a considerable historic resource was in place at the time of construction and ownership by GE/Utah International Inc.

Asset Plan. Springer shows attractive economic returns, based on today's APT prices, currently well above US$400/MTU. Tungsten is in resurgent demand, following global economic recovery that began in 2010. Current shortages have highlighted longer term supply issues for this critical strategic metal.

The Company is considering various sale and re-start options, including JV's and customer-supported mechanisms and agreements.

Markets. Tungsten, as APT or concentrate, represents approximately a $3.2Bn global market today (80,000 tonnes and $400/MTU average unit value). Springer's output would be approximately 2% of that demand level. China produces approximately 80% of global primary tungsten, and supplies over 70% of tungsten and tungsten products consumed globally outside of China. Tungsten has extreme hardness (hardest metal), density, and heat resistance (highest metal melting point) characteristics. More than half of the metal is consumed in form of tungsten carbide, as cutting tool surfaces, drill bit wear surfaces, and other hardening applications. Another 20% is consumed in the specialty metals/alloys industry. Munitions and lighting applications remain significant as well.

For a more detailed review of EMC's Springer Tungsten Mine asset, click here.

Property Description

The Springer property is located on the east flank of the Eugene Mountains, approximately 25 miles southwest of the city of Winnemucca, and 125 miles northeast of the city of Reno, in Pershing County, Nevada. The mine site is approximately 8 miles from Interstate 80, serviced by paved/gravel road, over owned land.

The project consists of 340 lode mineral claims (approximately 7,024 acres), 25 placer claims (approximately 500 acres) and fee lands (approximately 3,756 acres) for a total area of approximately 11,280 acres, including all mineral claims and fee lands. The Springer tungsten mining facility is located entirely on private fee lands.

Project History

The Springer tungsten property was the site of continuous underground tungsten mining between 1918 and 1958, much of that time controlled first by the Segerstrom family, and later by the Nevada-Massachusetts Mining Company ("NMC"). Mined ore was processed on site at various mills, of which only foundations and ruins remain today. The General Electric Company ("GE") acquired the property in the 1970's, interested in securing long term tungsten supply assets to support it's lighting and industrial tools businesses. The current mine and mill were constructed by Utah International Inc. ("UII", later became BHP Minerals Group) for GE in the mid 1970's, subsequently commissioned and operated by GE for 8 months in 1982. The property has not been actively mined since October 1982, and the underground workings are currently flooded to a depth of approximately 375 feet. EMC Metals Corp., through its then subsidiary Golden Predator Mines Inc., acquired the Springer mine and associated properties from GE in 2006. Between that purchase date and today, considerable refurbishment and renewal has been undertaken to the mill, control systems, hoist house, and an up-rating of the mill throughput from a nominal 950 tpd to a current 1,350 tpd capacity, and an estimated 1,200 tpd throughput after availabilities (89%).

Geologic Description

The area is underlain by Mesozoic, meta-sedimentary rocks intruded by Cretaceous granitic rocks, which were later overlain by Tertiary volcanic rocks. The meta-sedimentary rocks are composed of peltic sediments with thin beds of micritic limestone. These limestone beds host scheelite-bearing, contact metasomatic skarn deposits. These are arranged in two general horizons each with several individual beds. The horizons strike north-northeast and dip steeply to the northwest and the southeast. Scheelite is the only tungsten mineral defined in the skarns. It occurs in early veins and as finely disseminated grains along localized marble fronts. It is also associated with later alteration of garnet and pyroxene, where it occurs as coarse-grained aggregates and fine to medium-grained, euhedral dipyramidal crystals.

Property Exploration Work

The property has seen three phases of exploration work, conducted by three different owner/operators. These phases can be summarized as follows:

• Exploration drilling and underground sampling by Nevada-Massachusetts Corporation (NMC) between 1925 and 1958
• Surface and underground exploration drilling and channel sampling completed by GE between 1973 and 1982, and
• Surface diamond and reverse circulation (RC) drilling completed by EMC Metals in 2007 and 2008

The NMC exploration work focused mainly within the western-oriented mineralized beds located at the Stank and Springer-Humboldt Mines. No specific NMC sample or assay data of from any of the drifting, mining or drilling is available for any of these areas. Historic records do indicate resource grades on these beds to be higher than GE realized in the 1980's, on eastern oriented (Sutton) mineralized beds.

The exploration and sampling work completed by GEin 1981 focussed primarily on the eastern-oriented Sutton I and Sutton II areas. This work represents the majority of the exploration data available on the property. also did compile most of the older NMC data, rehabilitated certain historic underground workings, drilled 119 diamond core holes from surface and underground, extended the underground workings, and analysed approximately 3,200 samples.

EMC Metals later (2006-2007) completed 7 diamond core holes, and an additional 251 RC drill holes - 79 holes in the Mill Beds, 51 holes in the Sutton I Beds, and 81 holes in the George Beds. All of this drill activity focussed on near surface mineralization in order to evaluate open pit potential. A few diamond core holes were also drilled in the Sutton II area for confirmation and expansion of historical resources.

NI 43-101 Tungsten Resource

In 2009, EMC filed on SEDAR a NI 43-101 Technical Report on Resources for the Springer property, written by SRK Consulting. Those results excluded considerable historic resources, and are as follows:

Springer Tungsten Project NI 43-101 Resource Estimation Stryhas (2009) of SRK Consulting
Resource Category	Cut-off % WO3	Total (tonnes)	Average Grade  % WO3	Contained STU's WO3
Indicated	0.30	274,000	0.619	169,606
Inferred	0.30	1,097,000	0.562	616,514

Notes: This resource estimation was prepared in compliance with the "Best Practices and Reporting Guidelines" set out by CIM and National Instruments 43-10. It was prepared by SRK Consulting for EMC Metals Ltd. in 200 and was signed off by Bart Stryhas (Ph.D., C.P.G.). The resource calculation is based on drillhole database consisting of 377 drillholes for a total of 144,171 m of drilling. The maximum depth of 255 m and an average depth of 124 m and approximately 50% of the drill holes were used in the resource estimation. The grade estimate was completed using the inverse distance squared weighting algorithm. A specific gravity of 3.02g/cm3 was used for all mineralized material for this resource estimation. kt= thousand tonnes, Mlbs=million pounds

For an in depth review of the full NI 43-101 Technical Report, including commentary as appropriately disclaimed on the historic resource, Click here for the 43-101 Technical Report for the Springer Tungsten Project 

Current Status of Mine/Mill Asset

The tungsten mill has been nearly fully reconditioned by EMC since 2006. The rehab and modernization program has addressed mill circuits, automation and control improvements, mill process improvements, mill throughput expansion and ranch/water assets. Mill investment has totaled approximately $20 million.

• Mine/mill now sized for net 1,200 tpd throughput-production capacity of 146,000 MTU WO3 p.a.
• All necessary federal, state and local permits are in place,
• The mine has 887 acre-feet of water resource available, and additional water resource under control at the adjacent wholly-owned Cosgrave Ranch,
• Tailings dam and structures are designed and largely constructed and in place

The underground tungsten mine is serviced by a 1,350 foot, 5 compartment shaft, head frame and fully equipped hoist house. The mine is configured as an electric / pneumatic underground rail mine. Ore is mined utilizing various methods, typically long hole or shrinkage stoping, depending upon the ore widths.

• Equipment utilized by GE includes jack legs, jumbo drills, pneumatic cavos, slushers, and battery operated locomotives, all of which are on site, and
• Ore was hauled and dumped into ore passes, transferred into 5 ton skips, and hoisted to the surface by a 130 TPH, 7' double drum, 400hp (DC) production hoist, for mill processing.

The mine was allowed to flood and will require pumping out to rehab the underground areas. The total contained water has been estimated at 28,000,000 gallons, and has been tested to be mildly alkaline and containing very few minerals. Historic records indicate a low inflow of 125 gpm during operation in the early 1980's. The mine water could be utilized in the milling process, or pumped to tailings, and the necessary water rights are in place to pump out the mine.

Infrastructure servicing the mine is excellent. The asset is located in a mining-friendly State, 30 miles from a regional population center (Winnemucca). The proximity to Interstate Highway 80, paralleled by a main Southern Pacific railway line (siding at the ranch, 18 miles from mine gate) is a major advantage. Both Electric and natural gas connections are well established, with NV Energy (a 69kV, 3 phase, 60 Hz power line) and Southwest Gas.

Future Plans

The Springer asset is currently offered for sale through Laurentian Bank Securities in Toronto, Canada. While buyers continue to review information in an electronic data room (by invitation only), EMC also remains interested in developing and re-starting the mine. Today's Tungsten prices clearly support a re-start. Springer's up-rated output would represent 2% of the world tungsten supply and 10% of the non-China sourced supply of tungsten. Springer is the only near-operational tungsten mine and mill in the USA, and one of two in North America at this time.