Date: Aug 14, 2018
They say that how easily a vanadium mineral deposit upgrades via processing is more important that its in-situ grade and if that is true, then ASX listed junior explorer Venus Metals might be onto something at its Youanmi project in W.A.
The company has produced some very encouraging preliminary metallurgical test work results on fresh ore composites from Youanmi which is located about 40km southeast of the renowned Windimurra vanadium mine in the Murchison region of W.A.
83.1% of the vanadium was recovered using wet, low intensity magnetic separation methods followed by a stronger “rare earth drum” technique that produced a magnetic concentrate grading an impressive 1.34% vanadium pentoxide.
The concentrate also had low contents of penalty silica and alumina contents and the separation techniques rejected nearly 57% of the waste products.
Up to 92.8% of the total vanadium content was recovered in a series of further tests at even stronger magnetic intensities to further differentiate the non-magnetic fractions of the ore.
The aim of the test work was to assess the physical properties by crushing and grinding the ore, assess the upgrade of vanadium content achieved and evaluate the quality of the magnetic concentrate produced.
The company said the results are broadly in line with those of other comparable vanadium deposits in Australia.
The test work was managed by the well-respected METS Engineering Group and undertaken at the Iron Ore Technical Centre, which is part of ALS Metallurgy, based north of Perth in W.A.
According to Venus, metallurgical test work is ongoing to further improve vanadium recoveries into the magnetic concentrates produced from the Youanmi ores.
