Name of the Project
Gabanintha vanadium project.

Location
The project is located 40 km south of Meekatharra, in Western Australia.

Project Owner/s
Byrah Resources.

Project Description
A definitive feasibility study (DFS) has confirmed Gabanintha to be a long-life, low-cost, high-value, relatively low-risk and technically strong development opportunity, with a proposed average production rate of 27.9-million pounds a year (12 800 t/y) high-purity vanadium pentoxide product.

The peak steady-state production rate is proposed to be about 30-million to 31-million pounds a year (13 700 t/y to 14 200 t/y), which would establish Gabanintha as the world’s biggest primary production vanadium producer.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has an estimated net present value, at an 8% discount rate, of A$1.32-billion and internal rate of return of 34%, with a payback of 3.2 years.

Capital Expenditure
Preproduction process plant capital costs are estimated at A$454-million, which include detailed design engineering work (front-end engineering design study, or FEED); the early works ordering of long-lead time items; process plant construction; supporting infrastructure; engineering, procurement and construction management; owners’ costs; the buying of initial reagents; consumables and spare parts; commissioning and contingency.

Preproduction mining capital is estimated at A$16-million, predominantly comprising mining contractor mobilisation and establishment costs. Stage 2 deferred capital expenditure of A$64-million, designed to provide benefits for reagent consumption and vanadium recovery, is proposed once the project is in positive cash flow. There will also be working capital required up to and during the commissioning and initial ramp-up phase before the generation of positive cash flow.

Planned Start/End Date
Production is expected in 2022.

Latest Developments
Bryah Resources has reported a 31.3-million-tonne nickel/copper/cobalt mineral resource estimate for the Gabanintha project.

Fellow-listed Australian Vanadium, which holds the mineral rights to the vanadium, titanium, iron and cobalt at the deposit, is undertaking a bankable feasibility study for a vanadium operation.

Metallurgical testwork undertaken as part of the feasibility study has shown that the nickel, copper, cobalt and gold in the nonmagnetic tail, after separating the vanadium/titanium/magnetite concentrate, could be processed to produce a base metal concentrate.

Australian Vanadium has welcomed the initiative by Bryah to progress studies to extract value from the nonmagnetic waste stream at the Australian Vanadium deposit. It will also assist Bryah with samples from its nonmagnetic tailings and samples of its drill core from its southern pit areas for further feasibility studies into the flotation of the sulphides.

Bryah will now undertake several work streams over the coming months to better understand the base metal opportunities at the Australian Vanadium deposit. This will include analysing additional drilling samples, undertaking flotation testwork to establish the likely sulphide concentrate yields and grades of nickel, copper and cobalt, as well as gold and platinum-group elements, and undertaking a prefeasibility study into the capital and operational costs of adding a sulphide flotation circuit to the Australian Vanadium project processing plant.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Wave International (DFS); METS Engineering (metallurgical testwork, product assessment and mineral processing); CSA Global (resource and mining study work); Mine Geotech (openpit geotechnical inputs for CSA Global); Integrate Sustainability (environmental, heritage, health, safety and statutory approvals advice and assistance); AQ2 (project water supply and pit dewatering); Hydrologia (surface water assessment); and Biologic Environmental Survey (flora, fauna and subterranean fauna).

Contact Details for Project Information
Bryah Resources, tel +61 8 9321 0001or email info@bryah.com.au.