Manuka Resources (ASX:MKR) has released a maiden vanadium JORC 2012 indicated and inferred resource of 3.2Bt at 0.05% vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) for its recently acquired Taranaki VTM Iron Sand Project in New Zealand.
Highlights:
- With 1.6Mt of contained V2O5 the project ranks as one of the larger drilled vanadium deposits globally.
- High quality resource with 65.7% in the higher confidence indicated category.
- The titanomagnetite iron ore concentrate grade 55% to 57% Fe contains 0.5% V2O5 and 8.4% titanium dioxide (TiO2).
- At an assumed BFS production rate of 5Mtpa, annual production would contain 25Ktpa of V2O5, making it one of the largest aspiring vanadium producers on the ASX.
- Manuka will commission additional metallurgical test work to optimise the flowsheet for processing of the VTM concentrate to confirm economic recovery of vanadium as a separate product stream.
- Revenue derived from V2O5 (either as co-product or separate product) and potentially TiO2 sales would provide material by-product credits to offset the already low iron ore opex of US$20-$24/t.
- The Project has already secured a 5Mtpa mining licence with an initial 20 year mine life proposed and a BFS already underway.
“Manuka’s acquisition of 100% of Trans-Tasman Resources Limited (TTR), owner of the Taranaki VTM iron sand project, was completed in November 2022 and we continue to unlock latent value of the asset, yielding some impressive initial results,” Manuka Executive Director, and Chairman of the Taranaki VTM Project, Alan Eggers, said.
“The Taranaki VTM’s vast low cost titanomagnetite iron sands potential is well understood. Despite an awareness of its vanadium potential, the vanadium resource had not previously been estimated. The recent completion of this work highlights a very large resource in terms of contained vanadium making it a potentially material V2O5 producer of world scale.
“This new work on the two critical minerals, recoverable vanadium and titanium, confirms the potential to further enhance the project’s robust iron ore economics with the prospect of its estimated US$20 to $24 per tonne iron ore concentrate production cost to be materially offset by substantial vanadium and titanium metal by-product credits.
“The completed PFS and initial BFS work have demonstrated a low cost iron ore concentrate production operation with CO2 emissions generated per tonne of shipped concentrate less than half of other global iron ore concentrates.
“With concerns around security of vanadium supply from key producing nations China, Russia, Brazil and South Africa, underpinning rising prices, we expect the vanadium potential of Taranaki VTM, along with its green steel low carbon emissions profile, to be of huge interest to end users – hence vanadium’s critical mineral status in Australia, USA and the EU.”
For further information please visit: https://www.manukaresources.com.au
