Battery metals: Australian Vanadium may also be able to produce a high-grade titanium and iron by-product

Australian Vanadium (ASX:AVL) potentially has another moneymaking product to complement its vanadium.

The company says it’s namesake project in Western Australia is already one of the highest grade vanadium projects currently being developed in the world, with a resource at 183.6 million tonnes at 0.76 per cent vanadium pentoxide (V2O5).

Now test work has shown it has potential for an iron and titanium rich calcine by-product. The iron content is an average of 66 per cent, a high enough grade to sell into the iron ore market.

This was achieved by separating titanium from the iron calcine in successful pilot tests. Now it will apply these techniques to a larger portion of the calcine material.

“There is a big opportunity to unlock the value of this material,” chief operating officer Todd Richardson said.

“These indicative tests support a technical path to upgrade the material to be a valuable by-product.”

Shares jumped 14 per cent on this morning’s news.

The company is currently negotiating potential off-take agreements for both the vanadium and calcine product.

It is testing a vanadium roasting technology which improves extraction rates and hence lowers costs.

In other ASX battery metals news today:

Golden Deeps (ASX:GED) has hit high-grade vanadium at 1.81 per cent from shallow drilling at the Abenab open pit. It has also found lead and zinc in the same drill holes at its Namibian project. One hole returned 4.61 per cent lead and 3.62 per cent zinc. The company will drill up to 10 more holes at the project which will lead it to a newly defined resource estimate.

Oro Verde (ASX:OVL) has acquired its initial 20 per cent interest in the Makuutu rare earths project as announced in July. Drilling will start later this month and its conceptual exploration target is 270-530 million tonnes grading 0.04 per cent to 0.1 per cent ionic clay rare earths oxides. Unlike hard rock rare earths projects, it can be recovered using mild leaching conditions and is advantageous for processing.

Andromeda Metals (ASX:ADN) has applied to expand its tenure around Poochera and Camel lake, due to demand for halloysite kaolin. While it remains at the planning stage, a scoping study for Poochera will be released by the month’s end. Andromeda is also planning a drilling program for its South Australian Mount Hope project.