Stage one recovery:
Crush the ore as it comes off the back of a truck and then use big magnets to separate the iron (magnetite) rocks from the roof/floor and inter-burden. This waste is like sand (I'm going to call it sand, although its most likely something similar/different. for the explanation it doesn't matter, it's simply waste/rejects), it's not magnetic, so it isn't collected by the magnets. The Vanadium is contained within the iron (magnetite) rocks. The initial recovery numbers that you see given by TMT are 97.8%. This represents the amount of vanadium that was attached to the iron (magnetite) compared to the Vanadium that was attached to the sand (waste/rejects). You also see a grade number associated with this stage, KRC touts its 2% while AVL has something like 1.4%.
After the initial concentration and removal of sand the process moves into stage two.
Stage two, purification:
This is the stage where the aim of the game is to be better than 99.5% V purity. This stage can involve several different techniques. As I mentioned above, I'm not fully conversant in these metallurgical techniques and I don't understand them all. Put simply, they involve the further separation of Ti/Fe/V. Techniques involve roasting and leaching. It's be awesome if someone with more knowledge than me could help out here.
Happy to be corrected.
TMT Price at posting:
33.5¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
