TNG (ASX: TNG) will extract samples for a metallurgical pilot plant testwork program from the latest round of exploration at the Mount Peake Iron-Vanadium Project, located in the Northern Territory.
The 4000 metre drilling program will comprise diamond and reverse circulation drilling, with the exploration results to fully test the company’s patented hydrometallurgical process.
TNG also aims to upgrade the current JORC Inferred Resource of; 139 million tonnes at 0.29% vanadium, 5.34% titanium and 23.66% iron, to the higher confidence categories of Measured and / or Indicated.
The resource upgrade will be completed by Snowden Mining Consultants.
The company said the hydrometallurgical process has for the first time using hydrometallurgy, successfully extracted the valuable metal units of vanadium, titanium and iron from the titanomagnetite ores which make up most of Australia’s known vanadium deposits.
The process was jointly developed in 2010 in conjunction with TNG’s metallurgical consultants, Mineral Engineering Technical Services Pty Ltd (METS).
The testwork will take around six months to complete, providing a definitive test of the commercial potential of the process, and forms part of the Pre-Feasibility Study on the Mount Peake Project.