Strategic metals company, TNG Limited, has reached a major milestone at its wholly-owned Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project in the Northern Territory, this week submitting an Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed TIVAN processing facility at the Middle Arm Industrial Precinct just outside of Darwin.
The comprehensive document has been submitted to the NT Environmental Protection Authority and was developed to address the requirements from the NT EPA in line with its guidelines.
The company’s EIS covers the full gamut of associated environmental issues for the large processing facility, including biological surveys, noise, vibration, air quality impact modelling, site soil assessments and local hydrological considerations.
The statement also includes data on marine ecological surveys and near-shore environmental studies close to the plant site, traffic impact assessments and socio-economic impact assessments for the facility.
Management said the submission of the EIS represents the final step in obtaining environmental approvals for the Mount Peake project.
The company’s Darwin processing facility will treat magnetite concentrates mined at the Mount Peake mine site, 235km north of Alice Springs after it has been transported to Darwin by rail.
TNG has developed its innovative and unique TIVAN process, to commercially extract vanadium pentoxide, titanium dioxide and iron oxide from the magnetite concentrate, with a view to producing high-value end products for export to an international customer base.
TNG Managing Director and CEO Paul Burton said: “The submission of the EIS represents a significant milestone for our development and permitting team. It marks the final chapter in the multi-faceted environmental approval and permitting process that has been required for the Mount Peake project and is a substantial step towards the broader development and operation of the project.”
“With the recent submission of the Mine Management Plan for the Mount Peake mine site and the submission of the EIS for the Darwin TIVAN processing facility, we have now significantly progressed the permitting process for the Mount Peake project.”
Earlier this month, TNG submitted its mine management plan for Mount Peake to the Northern Territory Government.
The mine management plan, or “MMP”, outlines how it will operate the mine under the NT’s EPA guidelines and includes the company’s site rehabilitation strategies once mining has concluded.
It also provided a detailed design for an integrated waste landform to tackle long-term erosion and potential soil degradation, specialist groundwater modelling and acid drainage monitoring and modelling at the mine site.
According to TNG, the submission of the MMP to the NT’s Department of Primary Industry and Resources was a key requirement following last year’s State and Federal environmental go-ahead for the Mount Peake mine site and concentrator.
The company has also achieved several other approval milestones, including a formal Native Title mining agreement, the granting of Mount Peake’s mineral leases and major project facilitation status from the NT Government.
The world-class Mount Peake deposit has an ore reserve of 41.1 million tonnes grading 0.42% vanadium pentoxide, 7.99% titanium dioxide and 28% iron.
TNG is planning to churn out about 100,000 tonnes per annum of titanium dioxide pigment, 6,000 tpa of vanadium pentoxide and 500,000 tpa of iron oxide over an initial 37-year mine life.
In September, the company announced it had selected an optimised, single-stage, 2 million tpa mining operation, focussed on two higher-grade vanadium pits.
TNG said this would reduce the ore mining and processing costs and cut the capital expenditure by $29 million to $824 million whilst delivering a suitable magnetite concentration stream for processing.
As it stands, the plan is to truck the magnetite ore concentrate 80km from the Mount Peake mine to a rail siding facility, after which it will be transported nearly 1,200km to Darwin where it will be processed through the company’s proprietary TIVAN hydrometallurgical circuit.
The process has been designed to extract high-purity vanadium, titanium and iron oxide products from titaniferous magnetite concentrate without the need for expensive, energy-intensive roasting.
It is always good to see explorers progressing towards producer status and with most of the major submissions now in the bag, TNG just has to sit tight while it waits for the all-important nod to make the leap from explorer to miner.
Watch this space.
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By Matt Birney
