Just weeks after securing the mineral leases at its rapidly advancing Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project in the Northern Territory, TNG Ltd has now locked down a couple of crucial access permits required to get the project up and running.
Significantly, the company is now focused squarely on securing financing for the project.
Management said this week it had secured the necessary road and borefield/water access permits that cover both the mine site and associated infrastructure.
Mount Peake has an Ore Reserve of 41.1 million tonnes with a respectable grade of 0.42% vanadium pentoxide, 7.99% titanium dioxide and 28% iron.
It is forecast to produce 243,000 tonnes of high-purity V2O5, 3.5 million tonnes of titanium pigment and 10.6 million tonnes of high-grade iron oxide during its initial 17 year mine life.
With the reserve representing just 30% of the measured and indicated mineral inventory, there is considerable scope for TNG to extend the mine life further too if commodity prices hold up.
TNG Managing Director Paul Burton said: “We are rapidly ticking off the boxes towards the Mount Peake development, with key announcements over the past few months including the signing of a Native Title Mining Agreement, the signing of a binding term sheet for our titanium off-take production and the recent award of the Mount Peake Mineral Leases by the NT Government.”
“With these important milestones now complete, we can now focus our attention squarely on moving ahead with project financing negotiations.”
The company said it was looking at Government guaranteed export credit agency debt financing for Mount Peake, a low cost financing option beoing pursued and in some cases secured by a growing number of ASX listed junior to mid cap companies.
In certain circumstances, these debt packages are guaranteed by the host Government, which has the effect of dramatically lowering the applicable interest rates.
TNG is continuing work on the environmental impact statement for its proposed TIVAN downstream processing plant facility in Darwin and it is finalising the mining management plan.
