Just adding my 2 cents on this topic given how vague the KRC Ann was -
The KRC deposit is not very deep from my understanding. There is no recent drill data as the project is actually very old and had most of its exploration done in the mid 2000s. I did find this that shows the vanadium mineralisation is near surface.
On this note - even if it was at depth it still would not cause a large capex, but instead a higher mining cost due to the stripping of waste required before any mining can take place.
As such, I am guessing the 2.5B capex KRC has is due to the amount of PPE they need at their project. This is due to 2 reasons I can think of:
1) Their deposit is very low grade across vanadium, iron and titanium. 4.7bt @ 0.3% V2o5, 14.7% Fe, 2% Ti compares poorly to our 237mt @ 0.43% V2o5, 25% Fe and 5% Ti. This suggests they need more benefaction of the ROM ore before an acceptable grade concentrate can be produced i.e. to a concentrate comparable to ours or AVL. Naturally this requires higher specification plant to make up for the grade penalty i.e. a finer grind capable mill or a stronger magnetic separator. I also wouldn't rule out any project-specific processing equipment they might need given the lower grade levels they have at Speewah. In order to compensate for this additional fixed operation cost, they would likely need a massive plant throughput if any mining was to be economic - hence the higher capex.
2) They are planning to produce vanadium flake (~99.5% product). If my assumption on high throughput is correct, this would further add to cost.
I do not believe we would see a capex requirement as ridiculous as KRC (they announce those capex numbers like they're rio Tinto or fmg scale lol)- but more in line with TMT or AVL. This is because our mineralisation is more similar to theirs. They both aim to produce ~11kt Vanadium pentoxide equivalent p.a. for a capex around US$280-350mil. Lets also not forget our extensive Titanium and Iron credits that will lower cost and boost margins.
I encourage everything to look at the Windimurra vanadium project nearby. It is owned by Atlantic Ltd. (https://atlanticptyltd.com.au/projects/windimurra). It is very similar to our deposit and they have a full processing plant designed to process 7750t Vanadium Pentoxide p.a. It has undergone multiple change of ownerships due to a fire and poor engineering/construction that collectively put the project cost at around A$700mil. I believe we can achieve at least that kind of production levels for much much less investment down the line should the economics stack up.
Whats important now is to get the geology and metallurgy right so we know what kind of mineralisation we are dealing with and ensure we can get the processing method right right form the start and avoid any Windimurra-like issues.
SRN Price at posting:
1.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
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