Sponsored Content for Paul Burton

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 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 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.

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 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.

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 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.

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.

TNG Ltd has made the final leap towards securing buyers for 100% of its entire forecasted production from its flagship Mount Peake, vanadium-titanium-iron project in the Northern Territory, after signing the final off-take term sheet with Indian mining conglomerate, Vimson Group, for the iron to be produced from Mt Peake. The last hurdle comes after the company announced just yesterday it had secured offtake agreements for 100% of its vanadium pentoxide products.

TNG Ltd has signed a binding agreement with major global commodity trader for the offtake of 40% of the vanadium pentoxide products from its flagship Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project in the NT. The company already has a binding offtake agreement with South Korea's Woojin for at least 60% of the project's vanadium output and a binding term sheet with Gunvor for its iron products.

Strategic metals company, TNG Limited has received a healthy $2.18 million refund under the Federal Government's lucrative Research and Development, or “R&D” tax incentive scheme. The company received the funds in relation to test work for the commercial extraction of rare metals using its patented “TIVAN” process. Recently the company submitted the mine plan for its wholly-owned Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project in the Northern Territory, which has an initial 37-year mine life.

TNG Limited has submitted a comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement for its Darwin TIVAN processing facility to the NT Government in support of its wholly-owned, integrated Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron mining project near Alice Springs in the NT. The company will establish a world-class integrated downstream minerals processing operation in Darwin, to treat magnetite concentrates sourced from the Mount Peake mine.

TNG Limited has submitted the mining plan for its wholly-owned Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project to the Northern Territory Government. The move takes it one step closer towards establishing a pioneering, world-class integrated downstream processing minerals operation that will incorporate the company's value-adding TIVAN hydrometallurgical circuit at a plant near Darwin. The mine plan addresses several environmental issues, including site rehabilitation activities, once mining operations are completed.

TNG Limited has selected an optimised single-stage, 2 million tonne per annum operation for its Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron mine in the Northern Territory that will trim capital expenditure by $29m to $824m. The project is now estimated to deliver a life-of-mine net cash flow of $12.2 billion, pre-tax net present value of $2.8 billion and pre-tax IRR of 33% while capital payback is estimated at 2.8 years.

TNG Limited has flagged the potential to reduce mining costs and costs associated with waste haulage of tailings at its flagship Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron mine in the Northern Territory. The company said this could be achieved by focussing on two higher grade vanadium pits during the first 10 years of operation, which will lower ore mining and processing rates without affecting production.

TNG Ltd has signed a binding agreement with Swiss global specialty chemical distributor DKSH for the offtake of all titanium dioxide products from its flagship Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project in the NT. The company already has a binding offtake agreement with South Korea's Woojin for at least 60% of the project's vanadium output and a binding term sheet with major global commodity trader Gunvor for its iron products.

TNG Ltd has engaged Australian contractor McMahon Services to progress the program of work for the non-process infrastructure requirements of its flagship Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project in the Northern Territory. McMahon will advance the infrastructure planning developed by TNG, develop the tendering documents and implement the strategy and delivery framework for the infrastructure works packages.

TNG Ltd has been granted Vietnamese patents for its proprietary TIVAN technology for the extraction and recovery of high-purity vanadium, complementing its existing patents in Australia, Russia, Canada and the US. The patents provide further protection for the hydrometallurgical process as it progresses its Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project in the Northern Territory.

TNG Ltd has applied to trade mark its high-quality, low iron titania pigment produced via hydrometallurgical processing of ore feedstock from the Mount Peake multi-commodity mine near Alice Springs in the NT. The product's main use is in paint additives and coatings applications, so the minuscule iron content is a bonus, as it enhances the “brightness” of the tint and inhibits corrosion.

TNG Ltd is finalising its environmental impact statement and permitting processes for its NT-based, Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project and the proposed TIVAN downstream processing plant facility for refining high-value ore products, located close to Darwin. The company will haul concentrated products to a rail siding facility for transportation to Darwin, where the materials will be refined and then exported to customers in Asia.

TNG Ltd has appointed mining veteran John Elkington as its Non-Executive Chairman as it proceeds with the financing and developing of its Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project in the Northern Territory. Rex Turkington has stepped down as the company's interim Chairman and remains on the board as a non-executive director.

TNG Ltd has appointed Germany's KfW IPEX-Bank to lead a syndicate that will raise USD$600m to underpin development of its Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project in the Northern Territory. The final capital requirements will be determined and optimised during the ongoing front end engineering and design study and lender's due diligence.

TNG Ltd has locked down haul road and borefield/water access at its rapidly advancing Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project in the NT, just weeks after securing the key mineral leases. With these major milestones ticked off, the company will now focus on securing project financing.