Advanced metallurgical test-work by Surefire Resources NL has produced magnetite concentrate with higher grades and purity from ore at the 100%-owned Victory Bore Critical Minerals Project in the Mid-West of Western Australia.
Tests on a 700-kilogram bulk sample confirm higher concentrate grades and point to Victory Bore being world-class in size, grade and purity for critical mineral products.
Higher grades
Vanadium grades averaged 1.489% V2O5, an improvement of 14.5%; iron grades averaged 61.68% Fe, an improvement of 15%; and titanium grades averaged 18.525% TiO2 supporting further work for an additional TiO2 concentrate product.
This test-work also confirmed that the concentrate is significantly clean with low levels of deleterious elements.
Plan for Victory Bore
Surefire’s development plan for the Victory Bore project is to produce a high-grade magnetic concentrate at the Victory Bore mine site and transport this via Geraldton Port to Saudi Arabia where the downstream processing will occur to produce high-purity products of vanadium pentoxide, vanadium electrolyte, high-grade iron oxide, pig iron and titanium products.
Victory Bore contains a JORC resource of 464 million tonnes at 0.3% V2O5, 5.12% TiO2 and 17.7% Fe and a JORC probable ore reserve of 93.1 million tonnes at 0.35% V2O5, 5.2% TiO2 and 19.8% Fe.
The JORC resource estimates were derived from drilling carried out on the first 1-kilometre of a total 20 kilometres of mineralisation making the Victory Bore deposit one of the largest in the world.
About the test-work
The company initiated the test-work program following discussions with international groups interested in evaluating the Victory Bore concentrate following the positive pre-feasibility study (PFS) carried out on the project.
In this metallurgical program about 700 kilograms of ore was collected from reverse circulation (RC) drilling sample material from the main ore zone at Victory Bore.
The bulk sample underwent a process of crushing, grinding and Low Intensity Magnetic Separation (LIMS) to produce magnetic and non-magnetic fractions at Nagrom Laboratories in Perth.
Magnetic fraction
The magnetic fraction is the fraction that will be separated for shipment to downstream processing plants.
Magnetic concentrate assay results showed an exceptionally clean concentrate with high-grade iron at 61.68% Fe, vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) at 1.489% and titanium dioxide (TiO2) 9.921%.
LIMS Magnetic Separation concentrate.
The vanadium concentrate grade averaged 1.489% V2O5. For comparison, this represents an improvement of 14.5% over the 1.3% V2O5 used in the pre-feasibility study (PFS).
The vanadium grade in the magnetic and non-magnetic fraction shows that most of the vanadium is recovered in the magnetic fraction.
This is important for the downstream processing indicating that high recoveries from the magnetite concentrate can be achieved.
Iron grades averaged 61.68% Fe, an improvement of 15% from the 53.66% Fe used in the PFS.
Non-magnetic fraction
LIMS Non-Magnetic Separation concentrate.
The non-magnetic fraction showed a substantial increase in titanium dioxide (TiO2) content to 18.5%.
This has the potential to be further refined to produce a high-grade titanium concentrate suitable for titanium pigment and metal production plants, which supports the company’s plans to produce a titanium feedstock.
Assay results have also shown significantly low levels of deleterious elements indicating that the Victory Bore concentrate is very clean which will allow high purity products to be produced.
Next steps
The combination of these key elements places the Victory Bore project as a world-class, high-quality and high-grade critical and strategic minerals resource.
As most vanadium is confirmed to be in the magnetitic concentrate this indicates that high recoveries of vanadium can be expected in downstream processing to produce high-grade final products of vanadium pentoxide flake, ferro-vanadium and high-purity vanadium electrolyte.
The premium magnetite concentrate is ready to be shipped to selected overseas groups for technical evaluation and results will also be sent to interested companies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) as part of the company’s overall development plan for downstream processing of the magnetite concentrate in KSA.