The final tranche of assay results from a recently completed RC drilling campaign at Surefire Resources’ Victory Bore project in WA’s Mid-West region have dropped through the company’s letter box, confirming even more, massive mineralised widths of vanadium pentoxide to add to what is already an enormous resource.
Main Lode and Central Lode remain the two main vanadium lodes at Victory Bore and their pre-eminence now seems to be borne out in the third and final tranche of assays. Headline results include 72 metres at 0.41 per cent vanadium pentoxide at Main Lode, 55m at 0.42 per cent at Central Lode and 68m at 0.21 per cent at West Lode.
Management at the West Perth-based multi-minerals company says the lode widths will allow bulk mining methods with reduced mining cost, dilution and strip ratio. Notably, the company also says these three lodes have now undergone sufficient drilling to contribute to an upcoming pre-feasibility study.
Meanwhile, re-levelling and interpretation of historical aeromagnetic data has led to a new lode Surefire has labelled the “Mystery Lode”. This prospect sits 75m west of West Lode and falls inside the open pit design. It was discovered by the re-levelling and re-interpretation of historical aeromagnetic data that produced an enhanced image.
Surefire Resources Managing Director, Vladimir Nikolaenko said: “These drilling results, featuring massive widths and excellent grade continuity, suggest the Victory Bore Project will offer Surefire a long-life bulk mining opportunity.
“The discovery of the new Mystery Lode mineralised horizon reinforces that there is more to come from the Victory Bore-Unaly Hill Project”.
The production of the geophysics image of Mystery Lode led to a data review that provided one historical partial drilling intercept. Though the hole was not assayed from surface to 151m and between 188m and 192m, the samples that were assayed returned similar levels of vanadium mineralisation to Victory Bore’s other three lodes.
Victory Bore is located 560km north-east of Perth - roughly half-way between Geraldton and Leonora which also abuts the company’s Unaly Hill vanadium project to its south.
Together, Victory Bore and Unaly Hill constitute one of the largest vanadium oxide resources in WA with an inferred mineral resource of 237 million tonnes grading 0.43 per cent vanadium pentoxide, 24.9 per cent iron and 5.9 per cent titanium oxide.
Surefire also announced mid-December it had completed its drilling campaign with 62 holes going 5,189m and that it had submitted 2,594 samples for assay. The company said the drilling results demonstrated huge true widths and exceptional continuity both along strike and down dip.
Global supply-demand tensions for vanadium have spurred Surefire into launching a pre-feasibility study at Victory Bore in a bid to promote production.
The diamond drilling campaign was designed to in-fill existing drill sections at a close-spaced resource drilling proximity of about 25m by 100m spacing. It was undertaken to advance metallurgical studies, provide geotechnical data and lift the inferred resource to a higher resource category.
In addition, Surefire has submitted a mining licence application in preparation for a mining proposal submission.
Vanadium is listed as a “critical mineral” by several countries, including the United States and Australia, as well as the European Union.
There has occurred a recent strengthening of demand for vanadium from large capacity storage battery manufacturers together with increased activity in sectors such as specialty steel alloys for aeronautical, military, and space applications – plus industrial chemical and nuclear reactor applications.
On supply, about 60 per cent of the world’s vanadium supply is from China and Russia and geopolitical tensions have prompted buyers to seek other supplier nations.
Surefire says it has been engaging with the Australian Government and others to identify investors and potential partners as the company executes feasibility studies in the march towards a feasibility study.
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By Matt Birney
