Special report: Tando Resources has announced the grant of the mining right for its “SPD” vanadium project in South Africa, paving the way for drilling to start.

And the company is wasting no time, with drilling contractors already engaged and set to mobilise shortly.

The phase one program will begin in August and comprise 18 holes for 1650m at the SPD deposit, which currently hosts a resource of 513 million tonnes at 0.78 per cent vanadium pentoxide (V2O5).

Drilling is aimed at converting the resource, which is currently known as a “foreign resource”, to the JORC Code.

JORC refers to the mining industry’s official code for reporting exploration results, mineral resources and ore reserves, managed by the Australasian Joint Ore Reserves Committee.

Phase one will also include the first holes to be drilled at the shallow, high-grade vanadium pipes which sit within a 3km radius of the SPD deposit.

 

Likeness to past producing mine

Tando’s recently acquired SPD project has shown early similarities to the formerly producing Kennedy’s Vale mine.

The company previously reported high grades of over 2 per cent from magnetite pipes that are similar to the magnetite pipe once mined by Xstrata at the Kennedy’s Vale mine.

The Kennedy’s Vale mine lies along strike to the north from SPD, which is located in an established vanadium production hub in the Bushveld Complex.

Kennedy’s Vale, which was mothballed in 2004 after it ran out of ore, produced around 6000 tons per year of vanadium pentoxide and 2400 tons per year of ferro-vanadium.

Tando says the high vanadium grades at SPD highlight the strong potential for the pipes to underpin a simple, low-cost, high-grade direct shipping ore operation with a shorter development timetable.

DSO requires only simple crushing before it is exported, which keeps costs low.

“We are confident that the imminent drilling program will justify our strong belief in the SPD project, which we already know hosts an extensive deposit with high-grade vanadium,” managing director Bill Oliver said.

“There is also substantial upside in the vanadium pipes, where the sampling results show there is potential to generate significant early cashflow via a low-cost DSO vanadium operation.

“With the energy sector undergoing a structural shift in favour of renewable energies and demand for vanadium forecast to grow strongly as a result, our work at SPD is timed

perfectly.”

Once Tando has completed phase one, the company plans to move straight into phase two, which is aimed at upgrading the initial resource to the higher confidence indicated category.

Mineral resources are categorised in order of increasing geological confidence as inferred, indicated or measured.

The higher confidence means the company will be able to carry out economic studies like feasibility studies for public release.

Tando is fully funded to complete both phases of drilling.

 

This special report is brought to you by Tando Resources.

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