where is the pfs??????, page-63

I'm surprised this post didn't get more thumbs up. Maybe we're all just a bit jaded with the share price shenanigans. I must admit when I first saw it, I thought, "just another useless article".

However, the extract below demonstrates the nuances involved in successfully mining vanadium, and also contains a little hint about the PFS. Something tells me it will be worth the wait.

QUOTE:

Back in Australia, one of the few vanadium explorers looking at using the commercially proven traditional salt roast, water leach technique is Australian Vanadium (ASX: AVL) at its flagship Gabanintha project in WA.

With a complete pre-feasibility study due out shortly, Australian Vanadium’s metallurgical testwork on Gabanintha ore has found it amenable to the same processing route used by these major producers.

Geology

Feeding into a vanadium project’s planned processing method is the deposit’s geology.
Vanadium is a by-product of numerous minerals including oil shale, uranium and graphite. However, liberating vanadium from these deposits can often be uneconomic due to the amount and type of additional treatment required.

Mr Richardson pointed out that existing primary vanadium production arises from magnetite deposits.

When looking at a magnetite-style vanadium deposits, the key component within all the ore is the magnetite.

He explained that vanadium miners are only interested in the magnetite, with the remaining ore eradicated as waste.

“Then, once you get rid of that waste, and you have the concentrate, there’s also a question of how much vanadium is actually in that magnetite that you’ve concentrated.”
“And that varies from deposit to deposit.”

Mr Richardson pointed out deposits in South Africa’s Bushveld Complex often comprised 30% magnetite, with the remaining 70% of ore deemed waste.

“That 30% of ore that contains magnetite grades averaging somewhere around 1.8% to as high as 2.2% vanadium pentoxide.”


A different perspective

When looking at Australian Vanadium’s Gabanintha deposit, Mr Richardson noted that although the ore was a lower grade than Bushveld, there was much more magnetite.

“So, instead of discarding 70% of what we will mine, we will discard only about 40%.”
“Now, the magnetite we have left is lower grade than the magnetite you have in the Bushveld Complex, but it is still a fairly high-grade magnetite concentrate at about 1.35% to about 1.4% vanadium pentoxide.”

So, when looking at magnetite vanadium deposits, there are two primary factors to consider: how much actual magnetite is in the ore; and, then, how much vanadium is present in that magnetite.

“Often, reports just give you the grade, for example: 0.4% vanadium pentoxide in the ore. However, this number doesn’t really tell you anything because you don’t know how much vanadium is in the magnetite.”

“There can be a substantial amount of vanadium that’s not in the magnetite and if it is in the waste product, then you can’t hope to concentrate it. You’re just going to be throwing that vanadium away.”

“That’s why it always helps when companies tell you both the vanadium grade and magnetic concentrate and then the expected mass recovery from the ore.”

Mr Richardson added that these figures can’t really be known with a high degree of confidence until a pre-feasibility study has been completed.

What caused me to take another, proper look at this article? Largo's tick of approval.