Date: Jun 12, 2018
Canadian mining junior Western Uranium (WUC) and US firm Battery Mineral Resources (BMR) have struck a joint venture to exploit a potentially high-grade vanadium project in the adjoining San Juan and San Miguel counties of Utah and Colorado, respectively.
The Sage uranium deposit is believed to have vanadium grades of up to 1.5%, among the highest in the world.
Average vanadium oxide prices rose to about US$13.60/lb in the first quarter of this year, up 164% year-on-year.
Sage, which previously produced in 1990, features 94 unpatented mining claims.
A 2011 technical report put historic resource estimates of about 4.8 million pounds of vanadium at an average grade of 1.72%, and about 580,000lb of uranium at an average 0.21% – a ratio of about 8:1 vanadium to uranium. The report also disclosed ultra-high vanadium grades in the deposit at 1.67%, 2.54%, and 1.8%, respectively, for the formerly classified measured, indicated, and inferred resources.
