KEY POINTS
• Eight hole diamond drilling program commences in southern Resource blocks 50 and 60.
• Drilling to focus on metallurgical variability sampling and pit wall geotechnical information to be used in AVL’s Bankable Feasibility Study (BFS).
• Southern Resource blocks on granted M51/878 exhibit attractive geometallurgical qualities for mine scheduling.
• AVL’s dominant strike position of over 11km of the deposit offers flexibility for blending and schedule optimisation.
• AVL is advancing the Australian Vanadium Project at Gabanintha towards completion of a BFS in mid-2021, strongly focused on the Project’s ability to become the lowest cost primary vanadium producer.
Australian Vanadium Limited (ASX: AVL, “the Company” or “AVL”) is pleased to advise that it has commenced a diamond drilling progam on the Australian Vanadium Project (“the Project”) southern Resource blocks 50 and 60. The drilling is designed to gather data for metallurgical and geotechnical purposes which are required for the BFS. The drill core collected for metallurgical testwork will be used in further variability work and will quantify any potential differences in the massive magnetite horizon between the northern and
southern Resource blocks. Diamond holes completed in 2009 and 2015 indicate that the weathering of material in block 60 is shallower than northern blocks 20 and 30. This drilling is designed to confirm the observations and is required for the BFS.
Diamond holes will also be drilled for geotechnical data to determine important pit slope information. The intention is to include the southern Indicated Resources in the BFS mining schedule on granted Mining Lease M51/878.
Diamond drilling A program of 8 diamond drill holes for 895m are to be drilled, split evenly between blocks 50 and 60. Four will be drilled through mineralisation towards the east and are designed to collect metallurgical samples. They will also extend through the proposed pit wall to charcterise the rock conditions for pit slope angle design. Four of the holes will be drilled toward the west to intersect the SW proposed pit wall position. These holes will be used for geotechnical slope design.
The southern blocks 50 and 60, which were drilled to the Indicated Resource category in December 2019, have become increasingly important to the Project overall. The planned inclusion of the blocks in the mine schedule offer flexibility in mining, to ensure that the blend of material to be delivered to the plant is the optimal ratio to maximise plant operation, without requiring large waste pre-stripping and the stockpiling of lower recovery mineralisation.
and the stockpiling of lower recovery mineralisation.
The drilling program is anticipated to be underway for 4 weeks.
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