Australian Vanadium (AVL) has announced results from drilling at the southern strike extensions at the Australian Vanadium Project.
Completed in December 2019, the outstanding results will underpin an updated resource model in the southern areas.
The shallow intercepts and the relatively higher magnetic response are extremely encouraging for the company.
The drilling was successful in identifying the target vanadium mineralisation, confirming the continuity of the unique massive-magnetite zones at the project.
As reported in December, 30 reverse circulation (RC) holes, for 2336 metres, were drilled at the project to further define the high-grade zone (HG 10) within the pre-feasibility (PFS) study case area.
New drilling was focused on the southern blocks of Australian Vanadium’s 11.5 kilometre strike length, which are all currently outside the definition of the mineral reserves used in the company’s PFS.
Three holes had core high grade intercepts of 1.4 per cent vanadium oxide or greater, which is close to the vanadium oxide concentrate grades achieved during PFS testing.
Post treatment to reduce silica grades should result in a high vanadium grade concentrate product.
Notably, seven of the high-grade intercepts at the core of the intercepts are less than two per cent silicon dioxide which is approaching the quality of silica grades achieved in the concentrate product in the PFS testwork.
Geological observation during logging of the drill holes and magnetic susceptibility readings recorded on the samples all demonstrate a shallower weathering profile.
This translates to higher recoveries of magnetic product earlier on in the mining schedule.
The drill intersections are now being incorporated into the mineralisation interpretation and a mineral resource update is being incorporated and using data from RC drilling from late 2018, RC pre-collar and diamond tail drilling from January to April 2019, 13 RC holes completed in October 2019, and the 30 RC holes just completed.
The mineral resource update will incorporate new structural knowledge and an estimation of magnetic susceptibility, which is a substitute for metal recovery during concentration of the ore through a magnetic separation circuit.
The new resource estimation will also be completed in a local grid which will assist in the accuracy of the resource estimation and future optimisations.
“The exceptional high-grade results from this drilling programme in areas not currently in our reserve base further strengthen our confidence in the deposit,” Managing Director Vincent Algar commented.
“The results have also confirmed the presence of additional, shallow, highly magnetic mineralisation in this area. This open up potential for a second, and possibly third mining pit to be used in the DFS (definitive feasibility study) mining schedule which adds confidence to the strategies we are applying to bring the project into production,” he added.
Australian Vanadium’s share price is steady today with shares trading for 1.2 cents apiece in a $30.63 million market cap.
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