Name of the Project
Vanadium recovery project (VRP).

Location
Tahkoluoto port, in Pori, Finland.

Project Owner/s
Project developer Neometals and Critical Metals.

Project Description
Neometals and Critical Metals are jointly evaluating the feasibility of building a facility to process and recover high-grade vanadium chemicals from vanadium-bearing steelmaking by-products generated by Scandinavian companies SSAB EMEA and SSAB Europe Oy, collectively SSAB.

The project will be capable of processing 200 000 t/y of slag, with a reference grade of 3.93% vanadium pentoxide, without having to build a mine and concentrator, which existing primary producers have done.

The prefeasibility study envisages production of 13.43-million pounds of vanadium pentoxide over a 10.5-year life-of-plant.

The slag supply agreement provides for the conditional purchase of at least two-million dry metric tonnes of slag from SSAB.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has a net present value, at a 10% discount rate, of $230.1-million and an internal rate of return of 31% on a 100% ownership basis, with a payback of about four years.

Capital Expenditure
Initial capital costs are estimated at $183-million.

Planned Start/End Date
Operations are expected to start in December 2024.

Latest Developments
Neometals has started a pilot trial at its VRP.

The pilot trial will process about 13 t of vanadium-bearing steel by-product over 22 days from three slag stockpiles in Scandinavia, at 25 kg/h.

Neometals has said the successful completion of the pilot will confirm the technical feasibility of the company’s proprietary hydrometallurgical process at a scale 25 times larger than previous studies, and inform a feasibility study.

Further, the trial will provide vanadium pentoxide samples for evaluation by potential offtakers.

The 1:1 000 scale pilot follows positive results from an earlier mini-pilot trial that the company undertook in November, which, in turn, followed encouraging prefeasibility-level studies.

Neometals has a collaboration agreement in place with Critical Metals to jointly evaluate the feasibility of construction of a VRP facility to recover and produce sustainable high-grade vanadium products.

Neometals is funding and managing the evaluation activities, including the completion of successive feasibility studies up to consideration of a final investment decision, which, if positive, will earn Neometals a 50% interest in an incorporated joint venture with Critical.

The trial period is due for completion in July 2022.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
Hatch (prefeasibility study).

Contact Details for Project Information
Neometals, tel +61 8 9322 1182 or email info@neometals.com.au.