Australian Vanadium (ASX:AVL) has confirmed significant cobalt mineralisation after reviewing drilling data at its flagship 100% owned Gabanintha Vanadium Project in Western Australia.
Previous work by the company at Gabanintha has focused on the vanadium-titanium-iron mineral resource with no major analysis conducted of the cobalt potential to date.
The review found that 26 separate drill holes intersected above 500ppm cobalt and 309 intersections in 99 drill holes report above 200 ppm cobalt.
Assays graded up to 0.18% or 1,828 ppm cobalt and the widest intersection measured 61 metres at 239 ppm cobalt from 154 metres depth.
Further modelling of the resource for cobalt is planned.
Cobalt review
The review has been spurred by cobalt currently undergoing a significant re-rating as a strategic battery metal.
The increasing use of cobalt, as well as the demand from consumers for ethically sourced cobalt, has contributed to a price rise to over US$52,000 per metric tonne.
Cobalt has been found in the layered mafic igneous sequence at Gabanintha, distributed within the magnetite rich layers which form the bulk of the vanadium resource.
The cobalt is likely to be present in a non-magnetic sulphide component present in the ore.
Review details
The review of drilling and metallurgical test work data identified the following key information:
- The resource database contains 10,979 x 1 metre cobalt assay results from previous drilling;
- Of these, 1,270 x 1 metre samples assayed over 200 ppm cobalt with an average of 275 ppm cobalt;
- 26 separate drill holes report intersections above 500 ppm cobalt, at an average of 537 ppm cobalt;
- 309 intersections in 99 drill holes report above 200 ppm cobalt at an average of 253 ppm cobalt;
- Maximum assay of 0.18% or 1,828 ppm cobalt;
- Wide intersections of up to 61 metres at 239 ppm cobalt from 154 metres;
- Higher grade intersections include 14 metres at 362 ppm cobalt from 54 metres and 6 metres at 612 ppm cobalt from 39 metres;
- A close association of cobalt exists with the existing vanadium horizons, but appears located in the non-magnetic fraction, indicating a by-product opportunity;
- A review of the November 2015 beneficiation program indicates cobalt reporting to the nonmagnetic fraction in Davis tube recovery (DTR), low intensity magnetic separator (LIMS) and wet high intensity magnetic separator (WHIMS) test work in the transitional material; and
- Cobalt appears to be mostly absent from the oxidised material, providing an excellent proxy for the base of oxidation.
Analysis
Given the changing dynamics in the cobalt market, any cobalt mineralisation identified at Gabanintha that can be successfully mined and extracted will be a valuable addition to project economics.
AVL is currently undertaking a more detailed review of the available information on cobalt and other minor metals in the resource and identifying possible recovery pathways for them.
The company recognises the importance of analysing the cobalt content further as part of the Gabanintha project studies that are currently underway due to it potentially being a commercially viable by-product.
This will involve a cobalt resource estimation and full review of metallurgical results generated as part of the beneficiation test work conducted in 2015.
Additional specific test work will be undertaken on cobalt as required.