PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Australian government has approved the Mount Peake vanadium/titanium project, in the Northern Territory, for development.

ASX-listed TNG on Tuesday said that the federal environmental approval, which was subject to a number of conditions, came after the Northern Territory Environmental Protection Authority granted approval in January.

“This federal environmental approval is a huge milestone for all our key stakeholders, but particularly for our development and permitting team and our shareholders, who have waited patiently for this news,” said TNG MD Paul Burton.

“We are absolutely delighted that the long-running environmental impact assessment process for the Mt Peake mine and infrastructure component is now complete.”

Mt Peake is expected to cost A$853-million to develop, consisting of an openpit mine and on-site three-million-tonne-a-year concentrator, lined by rail to an advanced TIVAN refinery.

Burton said on Tuesday that TNG would now seek 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.

In parallel, TNG would also progress a number of financing and offtake discussions. TNG has already signed three life-of-mine offtake agreements for its vanadium, titanium dioxide and iron products, with the project forecast to produce 243 000 t of high purity vanadium pentoxide, 3.5-million tonnes of titanium pigment and 10.6-million tonnes of iron-oxide over a 17-year mine life.

“Against the backdrop of an outstanding performance by all of our key metals over the past 12 months, particularly vanadium and titanium, we believe that the prospects are strong for Mt Peake. TNG is working hard to unlock the value of this world class strategic metals resource and to position it as a long-life supplier of high value battery and steel raw materials for many decades to come,” Burton said.