Name of the Project
Vanadium recovery project.

Location
Tahkoluoto port, in Pori, Finland.

Project Owner/s
Project developer Neometals and Critical Metals.

Project Description
Neometals and Critical Metals are jointly evaluating the feasibility of building a facility to process and recover high-grade vanadium chemicals from vanadium-bearing steelmaking by-products generated by Scandinavian companies SSAB EMEA and SSAB Europe Oy, collectively SSAB.

The project will be capable of processing 200 000 t/y of slag, with a reference grade of 3.93% vanadium pentoxide, without having to build a mine and concentrator, which existing primary producers have done.

The prefeasibility study envisages production of 13.43-million pounds of vanadium pentoxide over a 10.5-year life-of-plant.

The slag supply agreement provides for the conditional purchase of at least two-million dry metric tonnes of slag from SSAB.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has a net present value, at a 10% discount rate, of $230.1-million and an internal rate of return of 31% on a 100% ownership basis, with a payback of about four years.

Capital Expenditure
Initial capital costs are estimated at $183-million.

Planned Start/End Date
Operations are expected to start in December 2024.

Latest Developments
The pilot plant is under construction with commissioning targeted for June 2021.

A definitive feasibility study (DFS) is on schedule for July 2021 to allow for a potential final investment decision in the second half of 2022.

As part of the DFS, Primobius will conduct a comprehensive economic analysis after the completion of the demonstration plant and engineering cost, and report the results of the DFS.

The economic case for consideration in a final investment decision to build Primobius’ first plant will ultimately be based on a feedstock blend consistent with future commercial feed supply and/or disposal service agreements.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
Hatch (prefeasibility study).

Contact Details for Project Information
Neometals, tel +61 8 9322 1182 or email info@neometals.com.au.