Golden Deeps Ltd (ASX:GED) has produced high-grade battery metal concentrates in metallurgical test work on samples from the Abenab Vanadium-Lead-Zinc Project in Namibia.
The emerging ASX-listed explorer-developer achieved peak concentrate grades of 15.6% vanadium, 11.2% zinc, 38.1% lead and 0.8% copper from bulk samples.
These grades represent an 18-fold upgrade from drill core composite samples, well above the company’s target of a 15-fold increase in quality.
The numbers are comparable to historical vanadium concentrate grades from Abenab, which are said to be some of the highest grades in the world.
“Major breakthrough”
“The outstanding vanadium plus zinc, lead and copper concentrate grades produced from test work on the Abenab deposit represent a major breakthrough for the company,” Golden Deeps CEO Jon Dugdale said.
“The test work results open the door to replicating the process for the Nosib discovery and then completing downstream hydrometallurgical test work to produce high-value battery metals products for the rapidly growing renewable energy battery storage industries globally.
“The results will also feed directly into our integrated mine development and processing study – a key stepping-stone towards realising our goal of developing production from the company’s near-surface, high-grade, vanadium with copper, lead, zinc and silver deposits in the Otavi Mountain Land of northern Namibia.”
Targeting VRFB industry
Golden Deeps is targeting the rapidly emerging vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) industry, a type of structural grid battery designed to support renewable energy sources and off-grid power systems.
The company is now moving to metallurgic testing on bulk samples from a high-grade copper-vanadium-lead discovery (Nosib) nearby, as well as producing a maiden resource estimate for the target.
For Abenab, GED is also advancing optimisation work on an updated resource model for the deposit, which, added to the maiden resource for Nosib, will likely provide an overall resource upgrade for the company’s Otavi Mountain Land projects in northern Namibia.
Finally, Golden Deeps says it is working to develop a flow sheet based on metallurgical work that will be applied to the new resource models, which it will use to develop an integrated mining and two-stage development and production plan for the Abenab and Nosib deposits.