Australian Vanadium (ASX:AVL) has engaged with contractor Sedgman (ASX:SDG) to conduct initial metal recovery test-work at its 100%-owned Gabanintha Vanadium Project in Western Australia.
Tests will evaluate selected materials from Gabanintha using the Neomet proprietary recovery process.
Neomet is a polymetallic low cost, high recovery hydrometallurgical process.
Initial test-work will focus on Gabanintha’s high-grade oxide run-of-mine (ROM) ore.
AVL will send sample materials to be initially tested through a standard Neomet bench scale testing facility in the Montreal laboratory.
The initial tests will be conducted free-of-charge to AVL.
Neomet process
The proprietary process has demonstrated its ability to extract and recover over 95% of secondary metals at a commercial grade, with a metal purity of over 99.5%.
The process enables the extraction of vanadium (V2O5), titanium (TiO2) and iron (Fe3O2) from TVM (titaniferous vanadiferous magnetite) ores such as Gabanintha.
The process seeks to generate maximum value of in-situ metal credits.
Conducting an initial testing round with Sedgman opens up an opportunity to extract metal credits from the whole of AVL’s 91.4 million tonne deposit at Gabanintha.
Vincent Algar, managing director, commented
“When considering options for developing Gabanintha, we should have all options on the table.
“We already have demonstrated excellent concentrate recovery from our past work and new work is underway to improve that further.
“This initial Neomet test work will allow us to get visibility on potential recovery of other valuable metal credits.”