The company is undertaking beneficiation test-work aimed at boosting the economic value of the ore by removing worthless minerals and resulting in higher grades.
Australian Vanadium Ltd (ASX:AVL) has achieved higher grades of vanadium and iron concentrate in test-work at its flagship Australian Vanadium Project in Western Australia, increasing the potential for vanadium resources and higher ferrotitanium co-product grades.
The company has been conducting additional studies and testing from the southern resource blocks at the project and has announced “positive outcomes and further progressed metallurgical characterisation”.
Iron grades of up to 61% in fresh magnetic concentrate were recovered, as well as grades of up to 1.51% vanadium oxide in concentrate.
Tests increase project economics
AVL managing director Vincent Algar said the test-work would hold the Australian Vanadium Project, which hosts a JORC-compliant 208.2 million tonnes resource at 0.74% vanadium pentoxide, in good stead.
“Work that our technical team has undertaken across the project has provided us with a unique understanding of the mining recoveries we can achieve,” he said.
“As a critical and battery mineral, this deposit continues to demonstrate its importance to Australia, as supply chains around the world look to secure ethically and economically processed material.
“The southern blocks offer an opportunity to increase the planned 25-year life of the project and contribute additional tonnes and grades of both vanadium and ferrotitanium co-product.”
Test-work details
Recent studies and test-work include preliminary mine designs, mineral resource category upgrade drill targeting, infrastructure location, mine planning, magnetic surveys and variability tests.
Variability test-work supports further work on expanding the mineral resource definition in the southern resource blocks and optimisation studies due to the positive results in upgrading iron and vanadium oxide grades.
The increased iron grades demonstrate the potential to improve the value of the company’s ferrotitanium co-product after vanadium extraction is completed, while the vanadium oxide grade increases confirm near-surface opportunities for higher vanadium concentrate grades and recoveries.
These results are significant in understanding the effect of material variability and potential value of the southern blocks’ feed to the proposed beneficiation plant at the Australian Vanadium Project.
Next steps
As previously covered by Proactive, AVL is working towards a bankable feasibility study for the Australian Vanadium Project, one of the later steps in the process for mine development.
The company met its target in the second stage of leaching test-work for the project, with an overall combined roast and leach vanadium extraction validated at 92%, a key differentiator for its pellet roast and leach processing circuit.
Following the BFS, AVL will undertake further drilling to increase the mineral resource estimate and mineralogical studies will be completed to understand mineral variation across the deposit, to characterise areas where titanium better separates during magnetic beneficiation, resulting in a residual enrichment of iron within the concentrate.
Upon completion of drilling and further characterisation work, improved quantification of the location and amount of material that will produce a high iron-vanadium concentrate will be incorporated into the mine studies and financial modelling for the project.
www.proactiveinvestors.com.au
