Australian Vanadium Ltd (ASX:AVL) and Neometals Ltd have signed a non-binding term sheet to explore opportunities for AVL to process co-product vanadium concentrate from Neometals’ Barrambie Project in Western Australia at a processing hub.
In addition, both parties will also co-locate or share non-process infrastructure near AVL’s proposed Tenindewa processing plant site.
Notably, significant vanadium, titanium and iron processing opportunities are expected to flow from the proposed collaboration.
Development of AVL’s Midwest regional concentrate processing hub is anticipated to help unlock critical and battery mineral projects in the region.
Provide synergies
AVL managing director Vincent Algar said: “The Australian Vanadium Project and Barrambie Project are the most well-understood and advanced vanadium titanium deposits in Australia.
“This collaboration will provide synergies, allowing the two projects to move forward even more confidently, using mutual understanding of the ores and processing.
“The Vanadium Triangle in the Midwest contains many remnants of the once massive Murchison Layered Intrusive Complex, a Bushveld Complex sized intrusion which hosts a number of potentially economic vanadium titanium magnetite (VTM) deposits.
“Being able to process our own concentrates and also offer processing infrastructure to other projects, will bring great benefit to the region and Australia as a whole and establish Australia as a cornerstone producer of vanadium products for green steel and energy storage applications.
“AVL welcomes discussions with other companies in the region that see benefit in the hub approach that AVL and Neometals are considering.”
Midwest Region Concentrate Processing Hub.
About Barrambie
The Barrambie titanium and vanadium project is about 80 kilometres northwest of Sandstone in Western Australia.
It is a large VTM resource, containing high-grade hard rock titanium and vanadium resource subsets.
Barrambie has been the subject of a recent PFS, which considers the production of an ilmenite concentrate and an iron/vanadium concentrate co-product, ideal for processing by AVL.
Neometals managing director Chris Reed said: “We welcome the opportunity with AVL to investigate co-location, infrastructure sharing and the potential to supply high-grade vanadium coproduct from our proposed mineral separation plant.
“Barrambie is one of the highest-grade titanium deposits in the world and can produce both a chloride-grade ilmenite product and vanadium-iron coproduct from low-temperature roasting and magnetic separation of Barrambie gravity concentrates.”