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.
The mine plan is among the specific deliverables Snowden Optiro has been tasked to provide. The plan will include items such as pit optimisation and design for the shallow vanadiferous magnetite deposit that occurs along a strike length of more than 10km and a depth open below 160m.
The consultant will also be required to provide a mining cost estimation on a contractor mining approach and cost model, resulting in a report that will be integrated into the overall final PFS.
Surefire Resources managing director Paul Burton said: “The appointment of Snowden Optiro brings another quality global brand to our team as we progress development of the world class Victory Bore deposit and enter into discussions with various government and private organisations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).”
The company recently sealed a significant memorandum of understanding with the KSA. The deal will see the company process ore from its Victory Bore vanadium and high-purity alumina (HPA) project, some 400km east of the port of Geraldton, before shipping it to the KSA’s Port Damam for the downstream processing that will produce high-value end products such as vanadium pentoxide, vanadium electrolyte, ferro-vanadium, pig-iron and HPA.
The total vanadium resource at Victory Bore is estimated at 321 million tonnes at 0.39 per cent vanadium pentoxide, with an upside of between 1003 and 1511 million tonnes at between 0.2 and 0.43 per cent vanadium pentoxide, if exploration targets are included. In addition, Victory Bore can contribute an estimated total aluminium resource of 37.7 million tonnes at 23.3 per cent aluminium oxide.
It constitutes one of Australia’s biggest vanadium and battery mineral deposits, with more than 3 billion pounds of contained vanadium pentoxide and associated HPA potential.
If the culmination of a PFS for the world-class Victory Bore project is not enough to get investors salivating, Surefire has two other projects in the Mid West to titillate the tastebuds – the high-grade magnetite Perenjori project and its promising Yidby gold project, where reverse-circulation (RC) drilling is underway to determine a resource estimate by the year’s end.
It seems the company is certainly living up to its name, igniting the battery and critical mineral space with three major projects reaching key milestones.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Gary Kjellgren
