The Cantung mine remains in full swing today after satisfying authorities that the operation is within its licence obligations, says the president of North American Tungsten.

Stephen Leahy said this morning from Vancouver that federal inspectors with Indian and Northern Affairs Canada in the Northwest Territories have withdrawn the stop work order issued last week in light of developments.

The mine is located just inside the Northwest Territories, but the only access road is through the Yukon.

Concerns that one of two tailings ponds might not be structurally sound have been dismissed through an independent assessment by EBA Engineering of Whitehorse, Leahy explained.

He also mentioned a circulation system has been installed to capture what he described as a small amount of water that was flowing from the mine and mixing with natural runoff but was not running through the treatment ponds.

The system installed captures the water and diverts it for use in the mill before sending it into the treatment system, he said.

Leahy said the circulation system was already in the works when the inspectors raised the concern about water running out of the mine but not through the ponds.

While the level of the number three pond is near its upper limit outlined in the water licence, it is still within the licenced level, he said.

Leahy said he's not sure how concerns arose over the structural stability of the number three pond, as the ponds are inspected annually by engineers.

In any case, he pointed out, the company has just received permission to proceed with the construction of a new pond, which will allow for the decommissioning and reclamation of number three.

North American Tungsten put Cantung back into production last September after a two-year break caused by a court battle between North American and two multinationals that provided upstart financing for the mine in 2001, in return for a supply of tungsten.

The two multinationals yanked ongoing funding in December 2003, arguing North American had breached its contract.

North American argued it had not breached the contract, and eventually emerged from the battle still in control of the Cantung asset.

A number of Yukon companies, however, were subsequently forced through bankruptcy proceedings to accept significant losses on money they were owed by North American.

There are 194 people employed at the mine, more than half from the Yukon.

Cantung went dormant in 1985.

At the time it was revived by North American in partnership with the two multinationals, the two multinationals had agreed to pay $60 per unit 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of tungsten. When financing was pulled, the world price had dropped to $40. Today, the unit price is up over $200.

When North American emerged from the court battle, the share price was six cents. Today, shares were trading for 93 cents.