Explorer Australian Vanadium says it has more vanadium at its WA Gabanintha project — 4.6 per cent more, in fact.

The company (ASX:AVL) updated its measured, indicated and inferred vanadium resource by 8.1 million tonnes to 183.6 million tonnes at 0.76 per cent V2O5.

Investors liked the news, sending the Australian Vanadium share price up almost 10 per cent to 3.6c in morning trade.

The revised estimate includes a high-grade zone — the focus of current mine studies – which increased 3.3 per cent to 96.7 million tonnes at 1 per cent V2O5.

The 19-hole drilling campaign also helped fine tune the mine plan to be unveiled in the upcoming pre-feasibility study (PFS), Australian Vanadium managing director Vince Algar said.

“By incorporating these new results into our PFS, we are better able to attract the attention of key vanadium investors and market participants,” he said.

“We are looking to meet the needs of the steel industry and the rapidly developing Vanadium Redox Flow Battery (VRFB) industry.”

The Australian Vanadium (ASX:AVL) share price over the past 12 months.
The Australian Vanadium (ASX:AVL) share price over the past 12 months.

Miners can undertake up to four different studies when examining whether or not a project can be mined economically.

These are – from least to most comprehensive — scoping, preliminary feasibility (PFS), definitive feasibility (DFS) and bankable feasibility (BFS).

And Australian Vanadium reckons there’s significant potential to convert further inferred resources along Gabanintha’s 11km length to measured and indicated through low-cost drilling programs.

Resource categories are ranked by geological confidence, with measured the highest degree of confidence, indicated the second highest level and inferred the lowest level of confidence.

“Shallower resources are worth more to us than deeper, expensive high stripping ratio resource,” Mr Algar said.

“We have confirmed that the deposit extends at depth, but the long-term value lies in further quality along strike.”

A base metals resource of 14.3 million tonnes containing 208 parts per million (ppm) cobalt, 666ppm nickel, 217ppm copper and 0.16 per cent sulphur also increased by 1.8 million tonnes.

“The increased understanding and confidence further strengthens Gabanintha’s position as a world-class vanadium project in its size, grade and metallurgical recovery parameters,” Mr Algar said.

Preparation of the final PFS document is currently underway with final reports to be handed to the board in December, AVL told investors.

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