Name of the Project
Ironveld high-purity iron (HPI), vanadium and titanium project.

Location
The project is located on the northern limb of the Bushveld Complex, in Limpopo, South Africa.

The rights cover a group of seven adjacent farms – Cracouw, Harriets Wish, Aurora, Nonnenwerth and Kransplaats, in the Capricorn district municipality; and La Pucella and Altona, in the Waterberg district municipality. The rights cover 165 m2.

Client
Ironveld.

Project Description
The current resource contains 56.4-million tons of magnetite ore on the main magnetite layer of the Bushveld Igneous Complex grading 48% iron,14.7% titanium (TiO₂) and 1.12% vanadium oxide (V₂O₅) for 27-million tons of in situ iron, 8.3-million tons of TiO₂ and 632 000 t of V₂O₅.

This does not include mineralisation on the Luge farm prospecting right which is near to the current Joint Ore Reserves Committee resource, yet to be defined and believed to have the same geology.

The project’s orebody is near surface, allowing for simple, opencast mining.

The plan is to build an initial 7.5 MW smelter as a precursor to a much larger (15 MW) pig iron plant, which will be supplied with magnetite from the Ironveld project.

Once in production, the company envisages that the 7.5 MW smelting facility will be able to generate 190.5 t of V₂O₅ in slag grading 36% V₂O₅ and 21 000 t/y of HPI powder. The third product is TiO₂ in slag, with expected production of 4 134.5 t/y grading 65% TiO₂.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
Not stated.

Value
Ironveld has successfully concluded a R 244.08-million funding package with the Industrial Development Corporation, relating specifically to the 15 MW smelter.

Duration
Not stated.

Latest Developments
Ironveld has raised £400 000 before expenses to buy equipment to process magnetite ore from its HPI, vanadium and titanium project for shipment to a potential offtake partner.

The company will buy a secondary gyratory crusher and magnetic separation equipment to process the magnetite ore to the offtake specifications. The potential offtaker has requested 10 000 t for commercial scale testing.

The company has reported that the required ore has been mined and that 1 000 t has been shipped. The new equipment will allow for a significant increase in the shipment rate.

The company is being paid for the commercial sample. Should the commercial sample be successfully processed, the offtaker has indicated that it might request to undertake a longer-term test of a significantly larger sample, taken across the licence holdings of the company for variability testing. Ironveld has said that the extended testing programme could last for up to 12 months.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Siyanda Inkwali Smelting Services (smelter).

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Ironveld, tel +44 203 397 2071 or email contact@ironveld.com.