Good explanation.
The key part of this announcement that confirms the value of Unaly Hill and likely Victory Bore (given both deposits are similar, as so is Windimurra)
The metallurgists found that 106 microns was the optimal grind size - a relatively standard size from my understanding and fairly course. The finer the grind, the higher the mineral recovery but also higher the cost.
Let's break composite table 3 down:
View attachment 1351581This the highest grade section of mineralisation that we hit during our recent diamond drill hole.
The feed grade is stated in the FEED row: 0.63% V2O5, 33.5% Fe, 9% Tio2, 20.2% SiO2, 11% Al2O3.
For the 106 micron grind size, and the weak 2000 gauss magnetic separation, the concentrate produced was:
- 1.33% V2O5 (79.8% recovery)
- 60.25% Fe (67.7% recovery)
- 11.3% Tio2 (48.1% recovery)
- 1.39% SiO2 (2.6% recovery) *
- 1.34% Al2O3 (4.6% recovery) *
*the last two elements, silica and alumina (and calcium) are deleterious elements and something we seek to minimise in final product.
As we can see, if we grind at a finer size and at 2000 gauss, we can hit 1.4% Vanadium Pentoxide grade, and 63% Fe content. But will need to look at economics in assessing grind size. Even if we use lower grade feed (say 0.4% V2o5 in table 1 of Ann) @ 106micron grind, we still recovered 1.39% v2o5 (which is a strangely higher concentration than from our high grade material...). Essentially, we get very good recoveries from all test feed regardless if between 0.4% to 0.6% vanadium - all producing very similar concentrate numbers @106 grind. This is very good as it shows that the metallurgical process is not very sensitive to grade variance.
Looking back at AVL's early vanadium recovery data at the start of the year, their fresh (very) high grade mineralisation recovered 1.42% - not much more than us @ 106micron and almost the same at 45 micron.
I believe Vlad is using some fairly budget geologists seeing how long these work programs are taking but the Ann mentioned further benefaction work and salt roasting. Will be interesting to see what numbers come out of that - as well as from the soon-to-be-released-hopefully RC drilling data.
With all this hopefully we can move straight onto the Scoping Study. Once we have that + a bit more drilling it'll be PFS time.
Exciting times - quality product in the right place at the right time.
