PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Uranium developer Toro Energy on Monday revealed that it would test the feasibility of extracting both uranium and vanadium concurrently at its Wiluna project, in Western Australia.
The announcement comes after the company at the end of last year revealed that it would start the hunt for other minerals at its Wiluna tenements, including for gold.
Toro on Monday told shareholders that the Wiluna ore is a uranium vanadate, which meant that the uranium resource also contained significant quantities of vanadium.
The company was of the opinion that the dual processing of vanadium with uranium could potentially result in significant improvements to the feasibility and value of the Wiluna project, given the recent significant increase in vanadium prices.
Toro said that initial testing will focus on optimising the leach conditions to allow for the dual extraction of both uranium and vanadium, for the best overall recovery of both metals.
The initial testing is expected to start within the next month.