Date: May 10, 2018
Less than a month after securing a handful of vanadium projects in Scandinavia, junior vanadium explorer Pursuit Minerals (ASX: PUR) says it may have stumbled upon one of the highest-grade vanadium prospects in the world, second only to the Maracas mine in Brazil and the Rhovan mine in South Africa.
Vanadium is predominantly used as a strengthening additive in steel and some forms of iron. According to the US Geological Survey, approximately 82,700 tonnes of vanadium were produced in 2014.
Pursuit said that over the past month since acquiring mineral reservations for the Koitelainen and Karhujupukka vanadium projects in Finland’s north, it had quickly set about analysing historical drilling and assay data already available. Pursuit compiled geochemical assay data from 27 drill holes, from a total of 3,784 metres of drilling done back in the 1970’s at the Koitelainen V prospect.
Furthermore, the company says that nine drill holes have been identified at Koitelainen Project which produced magnetite ranging from 2.0-3.7% vanadium and averaging 2.3% vanadium.
The 2.3% average could be incredibly significant for the small-cap explorer given that only 2 other mines currently produce vanadium at this grade.
Pursuit Minerals managing director Jeremy Read said that the V2O5 grades were “exceptional” and “indicate the highly prospective nature of the Koitelainen V prospect.”
“The magnetite concentrates produced by these nine high-grade vanadium holes at Koitelainen V place this prospect in the upper echelon of vanadium prospects globally,” Mr Read said.
In addition to the results to hand, Pusuit said that mineralisation in the eastern and central magnetic trends was “open both north-south and to the east, while the western magnetic trend is open to the south and east” which indicates Pursuit will carry out further drilling, and ultimately, intends to define a bulky high-grade resource at its newly-acquired prospects in Finland.
