ASX-listed Triton Minerals will fast-track studies on the vanadium mineralisation at the Nicanda Hill project, in Mozambique.
Triton told shareholders on Wednesday that the company was investigating the opportunity to produce a vanadium concentrate or product from Nicanda Hill, given the appreciation in the vanadium pentoxide price and the strong pricing outlook.
The decision to fast-track vanadium studies comes after a CSA Global study confirmed the potential of the vanadium deposit and potential processing options.
The project is currently estimated to host a Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resource of 1.44-billion tonnes of vanadium, at grades of 0.29% vanadium oxide. The resource was considered one of the world’s largest defined resources of vanadium, and provided Triton an opportunity to capitalise on the forecast shortage of vanadium in the coming years, the company said.
“While we are aware of the size of the vanadium deposit, these studies have highlighted significant zones of vanadium within the Nicanda Hill orebody and demonstrate that valuable synergies may be achieved by producing both graphite and vanadium,” said Triton MD Peter Canterbury.
“These recent developments will assist the commercialisation discussions under way on Nicanda Hill and the company’s efforts to introduce a joint venture partner into what is a world-scale vanadium and graphite deposit.”
Triton was currently progressing a mineralogical study into the vanadium mineralisation, which will feed into a planned metallurgical testwork programme using samples from diamond core holes already drilled, and being held in storage.
Further investigation was also planned to confirm the proportions of the vanadium minerals in the areas with greatest vanadium content within the Nicanda Hill deposit. This resource will be used to further develop the vanadium recovery process to a concentrate from the Nicanda Hill resource.
“I look forward to updating shareholders in the near term on both the metallurgical testwork but also on farm-in discussions on Nicanda Hill. We believe this will be complementary to our development of the Ancuabe graphite project, in Mozambique, and will provide significant regional synergies for the company,” Canterbury said.
Source: Mining Weekly