Battery Minerals MD David Flanagan
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Graphite developer Battery Minerals is looking at ways to exploit the near $10-billion worth of vanadium contained in its assets in Mozambique.
Battery Minerals MD David Flanagan on Friday told delegates at the Africa Downunder conference that the tailings that would be produced from its Montepuez and Balama graphite projects, was expected to contain significant amounts of vanadium resource.
The Stage 1 Montepuez project, which would produce 50 000 t/y of graphite, is expected to discharge between $30-million to $35-million worth of vanadium a year, in the form of tailings material.
“The company is working to establish how we can recover some of that vanadium, but for the time being it will be stored in the tailings dam. It is likely to be a very valuable resource,” Flanagan said on Friday.
In the meantime, Battery Minerals is continuing work at the Montepuez project, with first graphite export expected 12 months after financing completion.
The $51-million project is expected to have a mine life of more than ten years, based on a 50 000 t/y operation, with Battery Minerals planning an expansion of the project to 100 000 t/y with a targeted mine life of 30 years.
Battery Minerals is currently working to secure the remaining $38-million needed to bring the Montepuez project into completion and commissioning in 2020, after financier Resource Capital Fund in June terminated a $30-million debt and equity funding agreement, saying that the graphite market no longer met the company’s investment criteria.