An initial base case for the Gabanintha vanadium project, in the Murchison province of Western Australia, has indicated robust economics, with a net present value (NPV) ranging between $191-million and $2.37-billion, depending on pricing assumption.
The upper-end of the NPV range is estimated at the current vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) price of $20/lb and the bottom-end at a price of $8/lb. Using a life-of-mine V2O5 price forecast of $13/lb, the NPV of the project comes to $1.1-billion.
Australian Vanadium on Wednesday announced the results of the initial base case as part of the ongoing prefeasibility study (PFS) of the project.
The project is based on a proposed openpit mine; crushing, milling and beneficiation plant; and refining plant for final conversion and scale of V2O5 to be used in steel, speciality alloys and developing energy storage markets.
The base case of the PFS study considers a refinery at Gabanintha, producing at a planned rate of 22.5-million pounds a year of vanadium pentoxide over an initial 17 years. The openpit mining and benefication operation will produce about 900 000 t/y at a planned grade of 1.39% V2O5 of magnetic concentrate.
A base metals circuit will extract an estimated 1 500 t/y of sulphide concentrate containing cobalt, nickel and copper.
Operating expenses are currently estimated at $4.13/lb V2O5-equivalent and the initial indicative capital cost is $362-million.
Australian Vanadium reported that opportunities existed to further reduce costs and increase revenue through mine optimisation and alternative processing strategies.