Name and Location
Bushveld Main Magnetite Layer (MML) vanadium project, Limpopo, South Africa.
Client
Bushveld Minerals.
Project Description
The Bushveld vanadium project comprises an open-castable vanadium resource comprising three mineralised horizons combining >80 m in thickness.
The initial Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resources on the MML horizon is estimated at 52-million tonnes grading 45% iron, 1.48% vanadium oxide and 9.7% titanium oxide.
The MML hanging wall zone is estimated at about 60 m in thickness, with an estimated 1.5% to 1.7% vanadium oxide calculated grade in concentrate.
The footwall, or AB, zone, is estimated at 11 m in thickness, with a 2.38% vanadium oxide grade in concentrate.
The scoping study completed on the project envisages a base case production scenario of one-million tonnes a year of run-of-mine, producing 10 350 t/y of vanadium pentoxide flakes using salt roast processing.
The salt roast process flowsheet was chosen on account of its significantly lower capital expenditure (capex) and better overall economics, as well as its relatively short path to production while it also retains options for further processing of the iron–rich calcine to produce pig iron at a later stage.
Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has an estimated pretax net present value of $561.9-million and an estimated pretax internal rate of return of 35.6%. Payback is estimated at four years and four months from the start of mining.
Value
The scoping study has estimated capex of $261.5-million.
Duration
Not stated.
Latest Developments
Bushveld has started a prefeasibility study (PFS) on its vanadium project.
The PFS will evaluate several upside opportunities that have been identified. These include the options to monetise the iron-rich calcine dump and the potential to realise greater revenues for the higher-grade premium vanadium product than is currently priced in the scoping study.
The PFS is expected to be completed during the first half of 2015, with work on parts of the definitive feasibility study set to be undertaken while the PFS is under way.
Bushveld has started a drilling programme to upgrade the MML resource into the measured category and the conversion to a reserve as part of the PFS.
The study will also enable the collection of sufficient core for the detailed metallurgical testwork and the assessment of the extent of the AB zone, with the calculation of a maiden mineral resource expected on this deposit following the drilling.
A mining work programme, social and labour plan, as well as environmental- and social-impact assessment (ESIA) baseline studies are under way, in preparation for a mining right application in the first quarter of 2015.
Key Contracts and Suppliers
Process Engineering Solutions Company, Hatch Goba, Hindsight Financial & Commercial Solutions (scoping study and metallurgy, processing and infrastructure of PFS); SGS South Africa (extractive metallurgical testwork); MSA Group (resource evaluation, mining studies and mining right application); and Digby Wells (environmental studies, including ESIA, the environmental management plant and the applications for air emissions, integrated water-use and waste licences).
On Budget and on Time?
Too early to state.
Contact Details for Project Information
Bushveld Minerals, tel +27 11 268 6555, fax +27 11 268 5170 or email info@bushveldminerals.com.
Hatch Goba, tel +27 11 239 5300 or fax +27 11 239 5790.
SGS South Africa, tel +27 11 681 2500 or fax +27 11 433 3654.
MSA Group, tel +27 11 880 4209, fax +27 11 880 2184 or email info@msagroupservices.com.
Digby Wells, tel +27 11 789 9495, fax +27 11 789 9498 or email info@digbywells.co.za .