PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Australian Vanadium has inked an option agreement to locate a vanadium processing plant near the city of Geraldton, in Western Australia.
Some 1 334 acres have been set aside for the proposed plant, with Australian Vanadium paying an option fee of A$28 000. The company will pay a purchase price of A$2 100 per acre once the option has been exercised.
A prefeasibility study into the company’s namesake vanadium project included a series of trade-off studies, one of which highlighted the potential to locate a processing plant closer to existing gas infrastructure in order to take advantage of reduced energy costs.
Australian Vanadium said on Tuesday that in total, 11 alternate locations were considered.
“Locating the processing plant near Geraldton rather than at the mine site presents a number of opportunities for Australian Vanadium and our local communities,” said MD Vincent Algar.
“Our goal is to safeguard the business through all vanadium price cycles, by achieving lowest quartile cost of production. Moving the processing plant component could be an important step to achieve that.”
The company has now started a detailed engineering study for the processing plant relocation, which will define the associated costs related to the move. A final decision on the plant would be dependent on the trade-offs between operating expenses, logistics and transport costs, as well as plant capital costs and associated infrastructure costs.