JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – A maiden mineral resource estimate of 12.5-million tons at a grade of 0.7% vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) was declared on the AB zone of Aim-listed Bushveld Minerals’ Mokopane vanadium project, in Limpopo.
"This confirms our expectations that the AB zone represents significant upside for the project. The exceptional concentrate grades, in excess of 2% V2O5, are about 20% higher than the main magnetite layer (MML) concentrate grades on which the scoping study and the prefeasibility study (PFS) have been based.
“This represents a significant additional mineral resource, and moreover upside from the excellent vanadium grades that the testwork shows we can recover,” Bushveld CEO Fortune Mojapelo said.
The company added that it would continue with the project’s PFS based on the mineral resource defined on the MML.
It comprised studies for business case optimisation, studies to determine an optimum rate of mining, pit designs, tailings studies, infrastructure studies, processing flow sheet development, and financial modelling.
It aimed to complete the study before year-end, enabling it to focus on identifying routes to advance the project towards a definitive feasibility study, and to evaluate options to target early production.
Concurrently, Bushveld’s application for a mining right continued to progress, while an environmental-impact assessment had been completed, submitted to and accepted by the Department of Mineral Resources.