Metals used for steel alloys, once considered the poor cousins to iron ore, are starting to come into vogue, with both big and small players moving heaven and earth to uncover the next big discovery of metals vital to the massive global steel industry. The coveted group includes manganese, vanadium, molybdenum and others and Australia has rich resources of all of them.
Surefire Resources has received a formal expression of interest for its Victory Bore vanadium and titanium project from German independent commodities trading company HMS Bergbau AG. The expression of interest in Surefire's WA operation, extends to the company's processing facilities in Saudi Arabia and seems to also contemplate a long-term strategic resource partnership.
Surefire Resources has kicked off a new, two-phase drill campaign, starting at its Yidby gold prospect in WA's mid-west region, followed by a maiden drill program at the company's nearby Phat Boy copper project. The 2500m, 12-hole reverse circulation program will test nine newly identified targets recently revealed after a review old geophysical data, along with structural interpretations from available diamond-core and drill-chip relogging.
Surefire Resources has identified nine new drilling targets from reinterpreted IP geophysics data, structural interpretations and re-logging at its Yidby gold project in Western Australia's Mid West region. The company says the work significantly complements its understanding of the mineral system and controls on gold mineralisation previously intersected by its drilling and points to potential depth extensions for the porphyry-hosted system.
Surefire Resources has confirmed it has secured clearance to launch an 11-hole, 2200m maiden drilling campaign at its recently-discovered Phat Boy copper prospect in Western Australia's Mid West region. The prospective ground consists of four coincident copper-zinc anomalous zones and is interpreted to sit within a similar geological and structural setting to the world-class Golden Grove massive sulphide deposit.
Surefire Resources is planning a maiden drill program at its recently-discovered Phat Boy copper prospect in Western Australia's Mid West region in a bid to add to its established critical minerals portfolio. The prospect consists of four coincident copper-zinc anomalous zones and is interpreted to sit within a similar geological and structural setting to the world-class Golden Grove massive sulphide deposit.
Surefire Resources is following up newly-found base metals soil anomalism at its Yidby East gold project in WA's Mid West region, with renewed exploration set to test for possible Golden Grove-style deposit analogues. The broad-scale anomalous copper-zinc was identified at the company's Phat Boy target, about 50km from 29Metals' renowned Golden Grove copper-lead-zinc-gold-silver operation and other nearby volcanogenic-hosted massive sulphide deposits in the same belt.
Surefire Resources' soil sampling at its Yidby East gold project in Western Australia's Mid West region has identified anomalous base metals similar to of the nearby Golden Grove style of volcanogenic-hosted massive sulphide (VHMS) deposit. The company's Phat Boy target sits about 50km south/south-east of 29Metals' world-famous Golden Grove and other nearby VHMS deposits in the same belt.
Surefire Resources has executed a joint co-operation agreement with WA's Mid West Ports Authority to define the best pathway forward for exporting magnetite product from the company's Victory Bore operation. Management's aim is to secure port access for 1.25 million tonnes per annum to be shipped to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), where the ore will be processed into a suite of valuable products.
Surefire Resources has inked an agreement with DRA Global for a full-service engineering package to develop its 100 per cent-owned Victory Bore vanadium-iron project in Western Australia's Mid West region.
The signed heads of agreement charges DRA with taking the Victory Bore project from feasibility to construction and finally, into planned dual-country operations in Australia and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Surefire Resources says it has identified a significant opportunity to produce high-grade iron and titanium concentrates from its Unaly Hill magnetite deposit that sits in Western Australia's Mid West region. The company is also engaging with potential stakeholders interested in fast-tracking the development of its flagship Victory Bore project abutting its Unaly Hill ground, about 450km north-east of Perth.
The bright lights of a future Saudi Arabia are enticing Australian companies such as Surefire Resources to the Arabian Peninsula – and the company is looking to supply the minerals needed to build the Kingdom's pipeline of significant projects planned for the coming decades. The super-wealthy country has openly acknowledged it needs help from “experienced mining heads” to help develop its fledgling industry.
Surefire Resources has made a key boardroom addition to help guide its Victory Bore vanadium project in WA's Mid West after appointing experienced finance specialist Jan De Jager as its new chief executive officer. The company recently released an updated Victory Bore mineral resource estimate of 465 million tonnes at 0.3 per cent vanadium oxide, 5.1 per cent titanium dioxide and 17.7 per cent iron.
Surefire Resources will commit a tidy $454,000 tax rebate towards extending its research and development activities at its Victory Bore vanadium project in Western Australia's Mid West region. The tax rebate relates to the company's processing technology results and high-purity alumina testwork at the operation that includes a “breakthrough” metallurgical process which yielded extraction rates of 91 per cent vanadium and 88 per cent titanium.
Metallurgical testwork on samples from Surefire Resources' Yidby gold project in Western Australia's Murchison region alludes to almost 70 per cent more gold than previously reported by the company. And it is a timely finding for Surefire as the gold price continues to glitter, trading last week at a stunning all-time Australian high of $3308 per ounce.
Surefire Resources has strengthened its growing ties with Saudi Arabia after signing a new agreement designed to assist in development and investment for its Victory Bore vanadium project in WA's Mid West. The non-binding agreement with Saudi-based RASI Investment allows both parties to explore a joint venture or co-developer structure to assist in potential downstream processing facilities for offtake from the project.
A second round of testwork on Surefire Resources' breakthrough pre-treatment metallurgy has lifted the direct vanadium recovery from its Victory Bore magnetite resource in Western Australia to 97 per cent. The company says its proprietary method alleviates the vanadium industry's standard needs for high-pressure treatment or high-temperature roasting of pre-treated magnetite and brings significant capex and opex advantages.
Surefire Resources has developed a “breakthrough” metallurgical process which has yielded extraction rates of 91 per cent vanadium and 88 per cent titanium from its Victory Bore magnetite concentrate in WA's Midwest. The company says its provisionally patented technology alleviates the need for standard vanadium industry pre-treatment processing and will be incorporated into its developing Victory Bore operations where its economic, operational and environmental benefits will be evaluated.
Vanadium magnetite concentrate from Surefire Resources Victory Bore project will potentially be shipped to Saudi Arabia where it will be processed into vanadium-titanium-magnetite end products under a new agreement to be thrashed out between Surefire and Saudi based Ajlan & Bros Mining and Metals Company. The deal will also likely involve Ajlan investing directly into Victory Bore.
Surefire Resources has unveiled a pre-tax net present value of $1.7 billion for its Victory Bore vanadium project in WA's Mid West region following the release of a prefeasibility study into the operation. The company is predicting a 42.2 per cent pre-tax internal rate of return, a mine life of 24 years with a payback of 2.4 years and a capital cost of $767 million.
Surefire Resources is one step closer to a vanadium processing plant in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) after the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu pinpointed the Ras Al-Khair industrial region for the site. In August, the company sealed a pivotal MOU with the KSA, where it plans to process ore from its Victory Bore vanadium and high-purity alumina project in WA's Mid West.
Surefire Resources has engaged premier mining and exploration consultant Snowden Optiro to provide a mine plan, cost estimate and report for the upcoming prefeasibility study (PFS) at its 100 per cent-owned Victory Bore vanadium project in Western Australia's Mid West region. The company expects to deliver the PFS for what it describes as its “world-class” deposit in November.
Surefire Resources has sealed a pivotal memorandum of understanding with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where it will now process ore from its Victory Bore vanadium and high-purity alumina project in WA.
Surefire Resources is a step closer to developing its Victory Bore vanadium play in Western Australia into a significant critical minerals project, with the positive completion of a hydrogeological assessment. The company is planning an open-pit mine development with a proposed 4 million tonnes per annum mine rate, in addition to onsite beneficiation and processing.
Perth-based Surefire Resources has unlocked the door to the main stage for global battery and LED markets by confirming 99.99 per cent pure alumina in testwork, using waste rock from its Victory Bore vanadium deposit, about 400km east of the Western Australian port of Geraldton. High-purity alumina is a highly-specialised product and commands a tasty price of about $30,000 to $45,000 a tonne.
Surefire Resources is positioning closer to having an impact in the world's burgeoning battery market after stamping a maiden aluminium oxide resource at its Victory Bore project in Western Australia's Mid West region. The resource – estimated to contain up to 38 million tonnes of aluminium-hosted ore at a grade of 23.3 per cent – will underpin a prefeasibility study for the company's critical minerals project.
Surefire Resources is eyeing a November delivery of the prefeasibility study for its Victory Bore vanadium play, clearing the way for the next step in commercialising the project's massive deposit in Western Australia's Mid West region. Surefire is also making preliminary plans for further drilling to enable its measured resources to be converted into a JORC-compliant reserve.
Surefire Resources is tallying up the hits from its latest drilling probe at its promising Yidby project in Western Australia's Murchison goldfields. Early composite assay results returned 4m averaging 5.5g/t gold from 118m, housing a 1m intercept tipping the scales at an impressive 20.81g/t. The gold mineralised envelope has been etched out over a whopping 3km strike length … with no end in sight.
Surefire Resources has commissioned METS Engineering to undertake vital metallurgical testwork at its Victory Bore project in Western Australia's Mid West region to help further its bid to impact Australasia's emerging vanadium battery sector. Management hopes the move will boost the project's value by finding a streamlined separation process to extract vanadium from its magnetite hosts.
Surefire Resources is one step closer to obtaining a mining licence at its Victory Bore vanadium project in WA's Mid West with a baseline environmental study revealing no hurdles in the approvals process. The junior mineral explorer is sitting on one of Australia's biggest undeveloped deposits of vanadium with a resource of 321 million tonnes averaging 0.39 per cent vanadium pentoxide.
Surefire Resources is growing in confidence that a large gold mineralised system is emerging at its wholly-owned Yidby project, after finding sulphide-rich quartz porphyry in all 25 of its most recent RC drillholes. Visible gold was also seen in several locations at the project, 350km north-east of Perth in the Yalgoo-Singleton greenstone belt. Samples from all holes are now being analysed.
Surefire Resources hopes a “unique” high-purity alumina deposit, with returns grading up to 31 per cent aluminium oxide, will lead to lucrative rewards from its flagship Victory Bore vanadium project, 400km inland from the WA port city of Geraldton. The company has appointed Queensland-based consultant Lava Blue to start purification test work aimed at leading to the production of high-purity alumina product.
Surefire Resources has the drill bit spinning again at its promising Yidby gold project in the Murchison district of WA's Mid West, targeting extensions to gold mineralised intercepts of discovery holes at the project's three main prospects. The program will also test structural targets generated from magnetic and gravity data and will comprise 24 RC holes for a total of 2800m.
Minerals explorer Surefire Resources has been buoyed by an impressive independent estimate which has at least doubled the amount of vanadium it has lurking in its wholly owned Victory Bore-Unaly Hill project. The company says the global exploration target estimate for the entire vanadium project is a whopping 682 million tonnes to 1.19 billion tonnes at 0.2 percent to 0.43 percent vanadium pentoxide.
Minerals explorer Surefire Resources NL's optimism about its massive vanadium resource in WA's Mid West has been boosted by a detailed study that concludes its Victory Bore-Unaly Hill project can provide clean vanadium concentrate. Surefire's next step includes further investigation of its resource to determine its suitability for the burgeoning vanadium redox flow batteries sector for clean energy storage.
Surefire Resources is eyeing a rapid return to drilling at its promising Yidby Road gold prospect in WA with a drill rig locked in to start exploration later this month. 2500m of RC drilling is planned to follow up on the company's recent discoveries at Marshall and Fender and the campaign will step out to the north and the south on both gold mineralised structures.
Our board moves wrap includes Gerry Fahey, David Pevcic, Sufian Ahmad, Paul Dudley, Lazaros Nikeas, Mohammad Ali Shah, Kevin Coutinho, Lawrence Teo, John Bell, Peter Christie, Paul Glass, Kevin Read, and Paul Burton.
Perth-based minerals explorer Surefire Resources has appointed as managing director a highly experienced resources executive with a 30-year career in exploration and mining. Paul Burton is a geologist with an MSc in Mineral Exploration from McGill University, Canada and was recently the MD of Tivan, formerly TNG. His experience in vanadium will be welcome at Surefire which has massive vanadium resources in WA.
