Bushveld Minerals Limited (LON:BMN), the vanadium producer, has provided a maiden mineral resource estimate for the Brits Vanadium Project in South Africa.
The aggregate inferred and indicated mineral resource distributed across the lower, intermediate and upper seams is reported as 66.8mln tonnes at an average grade of 1.58% vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) in magnetite, at a cut-off grade of 20% magnetite in whole rock for 175,400 tonnes of contained vanadium.
READ: Bushveld Minerals reveals resource upgrade for Vametco mine
The indicated mineral resource tonnages account for 67% of the total combined mineral resource and stand at 44.9mln tonnes with an average grade of 1.59% V2O5 in magnetite for 115,600 tonnes of contained vanadium across the three seams, Bushveld said.
The lower seam at Brits represents a major portion of the total combined mineral resource tonnages at the cut-off grade of 20%, with 55.5mln tonnes at an average grade of 1.58% V2O5 in magnetite for 137,000 tonnes of contained vanadium; this represents roughly 83% of the total combined tonnage of the maiden mineral resource.
Within the combined mineral resource, the intermediate seam has the highest grade of the three seams at 1.76% V2O5 in magnetite though the tonnages are low at the current cut-off grade of 20% magnetite in whole rock, Bushveld noted.
The mineral resource is reported up to a depth of 150 metres below the surface and is based on the drilling of the western and central blocks of the farm Uitvalgrond Portion 3 that extends over a strike length of about 1.65 kilometres (km) to the most eastern fault where the last line of drilling was completed.
Bushveld said there is potential to increase the resource on the remaining eastern unexplored portion of the farm on a strike length of 1km.
"We are pleased to be able to report solid results confirming that we have a high-quality asset at the Brits Project, where its average grade of 1.58% V2O5 in magnetite is among the highest in the world,” said Fortune Mojapelo, the chief executive officer of Bushveld.
"This represents an important step in the development of Brits – as we recently detailed our path to producing over 8,400 mtV per annum and Brits provides the optionality for additional ore feed for the Vametco plant and, if required, concentrate feed for the Vanchem plant,” he added.
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— BushveldPerspective (@BMNperspective) June 12, 2019