Australian Vanadium’s ambitions to mine and process vanadium from its mine in Western Australia have brightened with the completion of a critical stage of pilot plant tests.
The company’s pilot plant at Balcatta in Perth treated 20 tonnes of ore and validated and optimised the grinding, separation, thickening and concentration steps achieving up to 76 per cent vanadium recovery.
The recovered ores showed a low silicon content, an impurity which affects reagent usage and might compromise value-adding uses such as production of vanadium redox flow batteries.
Australian Vanadium managing director Vincent Algar said the company had made significant and ground-breaking progress.
“The work increases the company’s capabilities in vanadium extraction and builds confidence in delivering high vanadium recovery when in production.”
Resaerch is now underway on a further roast testing with a final testing stage to come by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation.
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