Results of the drilling will fulfil the planned objectives, being to significantly increase the potential mine life or scale of the project to beyond the current 17 years as defined in the PFS and to enable better-informed decisions on the optimal scale and mine life of the project.
The drilling was successful in identifying the target vanadium mineralisation
Australian Vanadium Ltd (ASX:AVL) has intersected shallow vanadium on the southern strike extensions at the Australian Vanadium Project near Meekatharra, Western Australia which will underpin an updated resource model.
Results received from 30 reverse circulation (RC) drill holes for 2,336 metres included the two highest grades and width intersections on the project to date recording more than 1.25% vanadium.
The program strongly supports AVL’s goal to increase project life by identifying low-cost, high-grade, shallow and low-risk resources.
“Exceptional high-grade results”
Managing director Vincent Algar said: “The exceptional high-grade results from this drilling programme in areas not currently in our Reserve base further strengthen our confidence in the deposit.
“The results have also confirmed the presence of additional, shallow, highly magnetic mineralisation in this area.
“This opens up the potential for a second, and possibly third mining pit to be used in the DFS mining schedule, which adds confidence to the strategies we are applying to bring the Project into production.”
Best drill intersections include:
- 22 metres at 1.25% vanadium from 32 metres, including 15 metres at 1.44% vanadium from 37 metres;
- 21 metres at 1.28% from 39 metres, including 14 metres at 1.42% from 43 metres;
- 18 metres at 1.24% from 20 metres, including 12 metres at 1.36% from 22 metres;
- 13 metres at 1.33% from 36 metres, including 10 metres at 1.40% from 38 metres;
- 18 metres at 1.14% from 45 metres, including 5 metres at 1.27% from 51 metres; and
- 19 metres at 1.14% from 24 metres, including 3 metres at 1.33% from 36 metres.
Mineral resource update underway
The drill intersections are now being incorporated into the mineralisation interpretation and a mineral resources update is being completed including data from:
- RC drilling from late 2018 in fault block 6;
- RC pre-collar/Diamond tail drilling from January – April 2019 in fault blocks 17 and 20;
- The 13 RC holes completed in October 2019; and
- The 30 RC holes just completed.
The mineral resource update will incorporate new structural knowledge and estimation of magnetic susceptibility, which is a substitute for metal recovery during concentration of the ore through a magnetic separation circuit.
It will also be completed in a local grid that will assist in the accuracy of the resource estimation and subsequent optimisations.
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