Date: Sep 27, 2018
An initial base case for the Gabanintha vanadium project, in the Murchison province of Western Australia, has indicated robust economics, with a net present value (NPV) ranging between $191-million and $2.37-billion, depending on pricing assumption.
The upper-end of the NPV range is estimated at the current vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) price of $20/lb and the bottom-end at a price of $8/lb. Using a life-of-mine V2O5 price forecast of $13/lb, the NPV of the project comes to $1.1-billion.
Australian Vanadium on Wednesday announced the results of the initial base case as part of the ongoing prefeasibility study (PFS) of the project.
The project is based on a proposed openpit mine; crushing, milling and beneficiation plant; and refining plant for final conversion and scale of V2O5 to be used in steel, speciality alloys and developing energy storage markets.