A new metallurgical process suitable for extracting vanadium, titanium and iron has been successfully developed at TNG’s Mount Peake project in the Northern Territory of Western Australia. The process, jointly developed with TNG’s representative metallurgical consultants, Mineral Engineering Technical Services (METS), according to the company, represents a major step forward for the project. The deposit currently contains a JORC Inferred resource of 139 Mt at 0.29% V₂O₅, TiO₂, 23.7% Fe and is already amenable to processing using conventional pyrometallurgy and produces smelter acceptable concentrate grades. However, TNG and METS believe that the hydrometallurgical route provides an alternative, which will improve operating costs .

The new processing route has been successful in recovering the three principal commodities from bulk samples of Mount Peake ore. Recent test results have returned a positive outcome, in particular in the recovery of vanadium and iron. Further optimisation tests are currently underway. Following this success, TNG and METS advise that they have submitted a joint Patent Application to protect the invention and allow commercialisation at a later date.

Test work carried out by TNG/METS has now shown the magnetic concentrate is amenable to hydrometallurgical processing, resulting in very high recoveries of vanadium (98%) and iron (83-99%) in the acid leaching. These new results have importantly demonstrated that the iron can be separated from the vanadium by using SX, producing high grade iron.

This new processing route has now been proven to allow more than a single product to be generated and may therefore have a positive impact on the overall project economics, however the anticipated lower capital and operating costs and the higher recovery of the valuable products would need to be demonstrated in the further test work studies currently underway.

TNG will continue to advance the test work with METS to optimise the process prior to a decision on proceeding with a full feasibility study. The project is close to existing power and transport infrastructure and has a potential exploration target of 500-700 Mt with a grade range of 0.2%-0.4% V₂O₅ and 25%-35% Fe.