Name of the Project
Gibellini vanadium project.

Location
The project is located in Eureka County, in Nevada, in the US.

Project Owner/s
Prophecy Development Corp.

Project Description
The project comprises the Gibellini and Louie Hill vanadium deposits.

A preliminary economic assessment on the project envisages an openpit, heap-leach operation producing about 9.65-million pounds of vanadium pentoxide a year at an average grade of 0.26% vanadium pentoxide.

Average mine production during the 13.5-year mine life is 3.4-million tons of leach material at a strip ratio of 0.17 waste-to-leach material.

Processing will involve feeding leach material from the mine by loader to a hopper that supplies the crushing plant.

The leach material will be fed to the agglomerator, where sulphuric acid, flocculent and water will be added to achieve adequate agglomeration.

The agglomerated leach material will be transported to a stacker on the leach pad, which will stack the material to a height of about 5 m.

Once the material is stacked, the solution will be added to the leach heap.

The solution will be collected in a pond and this pregnant leach solution will be sent to the process building for metal recovery, where it will be subjected to solvent extraction and stripping processes to produce vanadium pentoxide.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has a net present value, at a 7% discount rate, of $338.3-million and an internal rate of return, with a payback of 1.72 years.

Capital Expenditure
Initial capital costs, including an 25% contingency, are estimated at $116.76-million.

Planned Start/End Date
The first consignment of vanadium pentoxide is expected to be delivered on site to 2022.

Latest Developments
Prophecy Development has applied for the primary mining permits governing the construction, operation and closure of its Gibellini vanadium project.

The company believes that the deposit is critical, as Gibellini’s production profile of 9.75-million pounds a year of vanadium pentoxide is sufficient to meet US current vanadium consumption requirements.

The permit applications, submitted to the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP), with copies provided for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Gibellini project environmental-impact statement (EIS) contractor SWCA, are for the water pollution control permit and the Class II air quality permit.

Prophecy has said that the Nevada state permits have been developed to provide construction-level engineering that supports the mine plan previously submitted to the BLM in the plan of operations.

The company has noted that comments received from the BLM and SWCA have been used as guidance in the engineering design to ensure that the state and federal permits are aligned, and reflect the most current guidance provided by the NDEP and BLM.

“The Prophecy team is working diligently with the support of the federal and state regulators, and is actively engaging all stakeholders . . . to obtain all the state and federal permits required to begin construction of North America’s first primary vanadium mine. We are on track to initiate the EIS process after the notice of intent is published, which will be a milestone in permitting the Gibellini project,” Prophecy VP of environment and sustainability Ron Espell has said.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Scotia International of Nevada Inc (basic engineering design drawings); Nonferrous Metals Mining Group Co (metallurgy, process design and engineering) and SWCA Environmental Consultants (third-party contractor).

On Budget and on Time?
Too early to state.

Contact Details for Project Information
Prophecy Development Corp, tel +1604569 3661 or email info@prophecydev.com.