Australian Vanadium Ltd (ASX:AVL) (OTCMKTS:ATVVF) (FRA:JT71) has welcomed Bryah Resources Ltd’s (ASX:BYH) upgrade of the base metal mineral resource at the Australian Vanadium deposit within Bryah’s Gabanintha Project in Western Australia.
AVL holds the mineral rights to vanadium, titanium, iron ore, cobalt, chromium, uranium, lithium, tantalum and manganese at the Australian Vanadium deposit.
Bryah has reported an updated base metals indicated and inferred resource, which has increased 119% from the previous resource to 31.3 million tonnes at 761 ppm nickel, 210 ppm copper and 228 ppm cobalt.
Both companies are working together to maximise the recovery of metals from this world-class Vanadium-Titanium-Magnetite (VTM) deposit, with Bryah taking the lead on further studies relating to the base metal recovery circuit.
The VTM deposit is about 11.5 kilometres long within the project area with most of this lying on Mining Lease M51/878, which was granted in 2020.
The Australian Vanadium Project is currently progressing through a Bankable Feasibility Study by AVL.
Bryah-AVL relationship
Bryah and AVL will work closely with one another in relation to the exercise of their respective rights and will agree upon the manner of their exercise in order to minimise interference with one another’s operations.
Due to the nature of the very separate disposition of the metals in the orebody, this is seen as being a very seamless processing solution that will maximise the benefit for both companies, as AVL holds the rights to any cobalt in the sulphide-rich concentrate stream.
In the case of the nickel-copper-cobalt resource reported within the VTM deposit, any production of a sulphide-rich concentrate will be dependent upon AVL bringing the project into production.
In AVL’s 2020 processing plant design, a sulphide flotation circuit was not included, however, an earlier Pre-feasibility Study completed by AVL in September 20185 did include a sulphide flotation circuit.
Strategy
AVL is focused on completing a BFS for the Australian Vanadium Project and welcomes the initiative of Bryah to progress the studies of extracting value from the non-magnetic waste stream.
The concept of maximising value from the resource is an important part of the AVL value proposition.
AVL will assist Bryah with samples from its non-magnetic tailings and also samples of drill core from its southern pit areas to progress further feasibility studies into the flotation of the sulphides.
The strategy also strongly complements AVL and BYH’s involvement in critical and battery metals as their demand increases.