PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed TNG has signed a heads of agreement (HoA) with infrastructure company BBI Group to assess potential commercial operations in Western Australia.
BBI owns the Balla Balla vanadium/titanium/iron project, which is located on the Pilbara coast, and currently has a Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resource of 456-million tonnes, grading 0.64% vanadium oxide, 13.7% titanium oxide and 45% iron.
BBI is also intending to develop port infrastructure near its Balla Balla resource.
TNG said on Tuesday that the HoA would see the companies assess the potential options for commercial cooperations, to best develop and exploit the Balla Ball project and TNG’s own Mount Peake vanadium/titanium/iron project, in the Northern Territory.
“As part of this arrangement, we will explore opportunities to use our TIVAN hydrometallurcial process at BBI’s Balla Balla project, as well as a number of other potential growth pathways,” said TNG MD Paul Burton.
“The Balla Balla deposit is another exceptional world-class vanadium resource and our initial testwork has shown that the TIVAN technology is ideally suited to processing its material.
An updated feasibility on TNG’s Mount Peake project estimated a capital expenditure of A$583-million, with the TIVAN process plant expected to have a design feed capacity of 900 000 t/y of magnetite concentrate and to be expandable to 1.8-million tonnes a year.
The Mount Peake project has received federal environmental approval, and the company was seeking to finalise the mining agreement with the Central Land Council as soon as possible, and secure a mining lease, which would clear the way for the site-based construction activities to start.