Dual-listed Aura Energy said on Thursday that plans to spin out its Swedish vanadium operation remained intact, but that the anticipated initial public offering (IPO) of the Häggån vanadium project would be delayed to early 2019.
The miner explained that it wanted to complete a scoping study on the project prior to an IPO to ensure maximum value.
Aura reported that METS Engineering of Perth had completed estimates for the capital and operating costs of the project and that the results were “very encouraging”, driving the progression of the study to the next stage.
The process options in the METS study use well proven technology in an innovative configuration, which Aura said would significantly improve the viability of processing vanadium black shale resources.
The scoping study still requires the current inferred resource estimate of about 13.1-billion pounds to the upgraded to measured and indicated category. Drilling, however, has been slower than anticipated and will only be completed early in 2019.
“Aura has significant drilling, geological evaluation, mineralogy and metallurgical testwork completed, placing the company in a technically strong position compared to many other peer vanadium projects which remain at an early stage.
"With vanadium, a commodity that is currently undergoing a significant resurgence, the activity at the Häggån deposit in Sweden has placed Aura in a strong position in the battery metals sector,” said executive chairperson Peter Reeve.
The dramatic rise in the price of vanadium has altered the principal focus for the Häggån project away from uranium. The vanadium price has risen 900% over the past three years, benefitting from structural shifts in the Chinese steel industry. Low inventory levels with no near-term replacement capacity are driving the price rise.
Aura previously indicated that it intended to retain a 70% to 80% ownership of the entity in which Häggån will be listed.