Over the June quarter, King River Resources (KRR) progressed metallurgical test work results and the pre-feasibility study (PFS) on its Speewah Specialty Metals Project.
The company plans to initially produce high purity alumina (HPA) at the Speewah Project. However, vanadium, titanium and iron will potentially be produced as co-products at a later stage.
The potential commodities won’t be included in the PFS as King River believes that will reduce the size of the project and potentially reduce the capex while maximising returns.
4N HPA production
In April, the company successfully produced the first 4N (99.99 per cent aluminium oxide) HPA by a new process developed by metallurgical consultants, TSW Analytical (TSW).
TSW made a breakthrough in extracting aluminium directly from the vanadium, titanium, iron, aluminium and magnesium-rich sulphuric acid leach solution as the first crude aluminium-rich precipitation product. Further refinements of the process allowed the company to successfully produce HPA at such a high purity level.
Pre-feasibility study and test work
As part of the hydrometallurgical test work, calcination of the HPA precursor at 1200 degrees celsius helped reduce transfer losses and aluminium previously lost on final wash, which should convert the HPA product to alpha-alumina.
The company achieved a stage two purification precipitation recovery rate of 81.5 per cent aluminium, which is 1.5 per cent more than the PFS’ target recovery.
Solvent extraction test work is currently underway to produce vanadium pentoxide, titanium dioxide and iron oxide products using leachates from the magnetic magnetite-ilmenite concentrates.
Additionally, CSA Global’s mining study is complete as well as marketing and environmental reports. Como Engineers’ plant and infrastructure design and costings is mostly completed — it’s now waiting on final model validation and review.
Still to come is work repeating the 4N HPA production process to produce a larger sample for verification analyses and confirming the HPA is 100 per cent alpha-alumina by an X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis. Further test work will also be conducted to improve overall recoveries and reduce reagent and acid consumptions.
Finance
During the June quarter, King River Resources received a research and development tax rebate of $385,064. At the end of the quarter, the company had $578,178 cash on hand.
The company also increased the loan facility with Harvey Springs Estate to $500,000 and extended the maturity date to June 30, 2021. King River fully utilised the loan facility before June 30 to fund pre-feasibility expenditure and working capital.
Placement and security purchase plan
On June 23 and July 9, King River released an announcement offering eligible shareholders the chance to participate in a security purchase plan (SPP) to raise $12.36 million at 3.3 cents each and one free attaching option for every two shares issued.
The funds will go towards ongoing development and exploration at King River’s projects and general working capital.
Additionally, King River announced a $2 million placement on July 16. Today, it has placed 66,666,669 shares plus one free attaching option for every two shares from professional and sophisticated investors. The options have an exercise price of six cents and an expiry date of 31 July 2022.
Company shares have dropped a slight 2.94 per cent and are trading for 3.3 cents each at 1:10 pm AEST.
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