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Technology Metals produces high purity vanadium for Chinese customers
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Special report: Technology Metals Australia has confirmed it can produce a final high purity vanadium product from its Gabanintha project for end users and samples are now on the way to customers.
Test work has produced a 99.5 per cent vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) product from a 60kg sample of high-grade massive magnetite mineralisation using low-cost conventional processing methods.
Benchmark vanadium pentoxide pricing is based on a 98 per cent purity product. The high purity of product at Technology Metals’ (ASX:TMT) Gabanintha project may enable it to receive premium pricing.
Recoveries were also high, with over 98 per cent of vanadium recovered from a leach solution generated from salt roasting of the magnetic concentrate – a conventional, low cost method.
The process required a relatively low reagent consumption and did not need additional costly contaminant removal steps.
Both the solution and final product produced from this test work are regarded as extremely clean and low in solution impurities.
“To achieve greater than 99.5 per cent purity of V2O5 product from this phase of test work is a very exciting achievement for the company and I look forward to presenting these results to interested parties during my current visit to China,” managing director Ian Prentice said.
Sub-samples of this high purity V2O5 have been dispatched to a range of potential vanadium end users to be independently assessed for relevant applications, initially targeting the steel and vanadium redox flow battery (VRB) industry sectors.
The very high purity achieved means Technology Metals can also potentially target the speciality chemical and aeronautical industries – which would deliver a substantial premium to the 98 per cent V2O5 product price.
Technology Metals has already completed a pre-feasibility study (PFS) and is making significant progress on a definitive feasibility study, which is due for completion in the June quarter of 2019.
The earlier PFS has placed a pre-tax net present value (NPV) of $1.3 billion on the project that is expected to produce 13,000 tonnes each year.
NPV is a metric used to assess the profitability of a project. The higher the NPV, the more profitable a project will be.
The mine will have an initial 13-year life and is expected to generate $3.1 billion of total earnings before interest tax, depreciation and amortisation.
Technology Metals is now one of only a few ASX-listed companies to have completed a full PFS on an Australian vanadium project, placing it ahead of the majority of its peers as it aims to get the flagship project up and running by 2021.
Its share price has appreciated nearly 150 per cent to 53.5c in the past 12 months.
This special report is brought to you by Technology Metals Australia.
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