Silver Elephant Mining Corp. has officially spun off Nevada Vanadium Mining Corp., which is in the process of permitting the Gibellini mining operation near Eureka, and Ron Espell is now the chief executive officer of Nevada Vanadium.
“Silver Elephant keeps its silver property and spun-out Nevada Vanadium and its nickel property,” said Espell, explaining that Silver Elephant had requests from investors who wanted to invest in one commodity rather than all the commodities represented before the spinoffs.
Espell, who was vice president of environment and sustainability before the change, has been working closely with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Battle Mountain District on the draft environmental impact statement for the project.
He said on Jan. 20 that the draft should be coming out soon for Gibellini, and the company is completing a feasibility study of the project, which would be a surface mine with heap leaching and a processing plant and employ roughly 113 workers when in operation.
The Gibellini vanadium project that is expected to be the first vanadium mine in the United States is roughly 20 miles south of the town of Eureka on BLM mining claims that include the 6,456 acres of the Gibellini site and 4,077 acres of the Bisoni claims that Silver Elephant acquired from CellCube Energy Storage Systems Inc. in 2020.
Along with mining vanadium, Nevada Vanadium plans to produce a small amount of uranium yellowcake from the operations. Espell said the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services has already permitted the uranium aspect of the planned operation.
The yellowcake would go into special steel drums and be trucked out directly to the buyer.
Vanadium has many uses, including to strengthen steel, for the aerospace and defense industries, in the production of synthetic rubber, polyester, fiberglass, in catalytic converters and in lithium vanadium batteries for electric vehicles.
Silver Elephant’s plan of arrangement completed earlier in the week provided for each shareholder of Silver Elephant to receive in exchange for every 10 pre-consolidation shares one share of Silver Elephant, one share of Flying Nickel Mining Corp., one share of Nevada Vanadium and two shares of Battery Metals Royalties Corp.
Post-arrangement, Nevada Vanadium is a new Canadian company with 50 million common shares outstanding, holding a 100% interest in Gibellini, and Flying Nickel is a new Canadian company with 57.84 million shares outstanding and 100% interest in the Minago nickel project in Manitoba.
Battery Metals will hold a 2% royalty on Nevada Vanadium and Flying Nickel along with nearly 23 million shares of Nevada Vanadium, representing 45.9% of shares, and nearly 23 million shares of Flying Nickel, representing 37.9%, according to the announcement from Vancouver-based Silver Elephant.
Silver Elephant, with a little more than 24 million outstanding shares after completion of the arrangement, holds a 100% interest in the Pulacayo silver project and the El Triunfo gold and silver project, both in Bolivia, as well as 31.73 million shares of Battery Metals, or 37.9%.
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