Date:Jul 27, 2018
Protean Energy subsidiary, Stonehenge Korea Ltd and KIGAM have signed a processing optimisation project agreement focused on maximising vanadium recovery from the Daejon black shale project.
Perth-based vanadium resource and battery development company Protean Energy (ASX: POW), through its 50%-owned subsidiary Stonehenge Korea, has reached an agreement with Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) to maximise vanadium recoveries from its flagship Daejon project in the country’s south.
The agreement aims to optimise the processing flowsheet for the extraction of vanadium from black shale at Daejon and its purification into battery-grade vanadium pentoxide.
Under the terms of the agreement, Stonehenge will also acquire rights to KIGAM’s proprietary black shale processing intellectual property, including the results of numerous studies on processing of the Daejon-style vanadium-bearing black shale mineralisation within Korea’s Ockcheon belt.
The studies were conducted by KIGAM at bench and pilot plant scale on mineralisation from tenements immediately to the south along strike from Daejon.
The 1.2 tonnes per day pilot plant comprises crushing, leaching and solvent extraction circuits to create vanadium pentoxide and uranium concentrate (yellowcake) products from black shale mineralisation.
Protean said an update of the pilot plant design to optimise vanadium extraction could potentially transform it into a significant asset for the Daejon project.
Black shale research
Industry research in China has focused on the beneficiation of black shale hosted vanadium to grades of 2% and has seen this style of mineralisation emerge as a substantial source of vanadium supply.
