COUFLENS PROJECT
Couflens Tungsten Gold Project
The Couflens Project comprises an exploration licence that covers 42km2 in the Ariège department and includes the historic Salau mine, which was one of the world’s highest grade tungsten mines when it operated from 1971 to 1986.
Couflens benefits from strong infrastructure and geographical proximity to major European industrial markets.
It is located approximately 110km from Toulouse, which offers major industrial hubs, including Airbus which is the largest industrial site in the country.
Couflens is positioned as a rare advanced-stage tungsten opportunity in Western Europe.
In addition to tungsten, the project contains significant gold values up to 24.5g/t Au in rock chips at surface.
Highlights:
- Salau is a historical high-grade tungsten mine recorded to have produced approximately 930,000 tonnes at 1.5% WO3 for around 13,950 tonnes of WO3 in concentrate prior to closure, with production grades of up to 2.5% WO3 in the mine’s latter years
- Significant gold grades demonstrated and associated with tungsten mineralisation, with results of up to 8.9g/t Au in tailings samples, 8.5m @ 3.4g/t Au and 2% WO3 in partially sampled historical core and 8m @ 9.5g/t Au and 2.4% WO3 in channel samples deeper in the mine being recorded
- Rock chip samples confirmed the presence of widespread high grade tungsten mineralisation at surface, with grades up to 8.25% WO3
- The deposit remains open at depth, with previous drilling below the base of the existing underground development that confirmed the continuation of the mineralised system
Target regions within the Salau mine area, displaying material rock chip and drilling samples with tungsten and gold
- The potential exists for shear hosted gold mineralisation to be associated with large regional fault structures extending along a 5km corridor to the west of Salau, with the presence of gold confirmed down to depths of 600m, highlighting significant scale opportunity
- Couflens combines opportunities for the potential reactivation of the high grade Salau tungsten mine coupled with significant untapped regional exploration potential
The Company is in a process of re-assessing historical exploration data, designing programs, and developing an effective strategy to unlock value at Couflens.
Couflens Strategic Position
Couflens is poised to benefit from strong European Union strategic support as the EU recognises tungsten as one of Europe’s most Critical Raw Materials (CRMs).
Tungsten is also categorised as a Strategic Raw Material, a subset of CRMs that have particularly high importance.
The main benefits to having strategic project status within the EU are ease and speed of permitting, along with access to capital from potential investors through de-risking.
In February 2026 the French State announced a Euro 50 million investment in Imerys’ lithium project, securing a 30% stake in the Company by the Government.
This significant milestone demonstrates France’s firm commitment to developing the country’s critical materials.
