One metre grading 12 per cent vanadium, 30 per cent lead and 10.5 per zinc. That’s what explorer Golden Deeps (ASX:GED) has just uncovered at the historic Abenab open pit mine in Namibia.
As a point of reference, a good vanadium deposit might grade ~1 per cent V2O5. Those lead and zinc grades ain’t nothing to sniff at either.
But the really interesting about Abenab is the (frankly outrageous) super high grade V2O5 in concentrate it produces of between 18 and 21 per cent.
Golden Deeps says it’s the Abenab ore — fundamentally different from magnetite-hosted vanadium projects — that makes it easy to beneficiate and concentrate to an extremely high level.
The company is moving to monetise the historic open pit and underground operation, which was mined between 1921 and 1938.
A few weeks ago, the Golden Deeps and Generous Metals Company (GMC) joint venture decided to push ahead with stage two trial operations to process vanadium, lead and zinc from existing stockpiles and tailings at Abenab.
Golden Deeps chairman Michael Minosora says this newly discovered high grade vanadium could be extracted via a pit cut back — providing a potential new feed source for the joint venture’s planned processing plant.
“To follow on from this, we will now carry out additional RC drilling to delineate the extent of the vanadium mineralised breccia in the south wall of the pit and to support an initial JORC compliant mineral resource,” he says.
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