Viking Mines (ASX:VKA) has posted further ‘excellent’ and ‘encouraging’ results in ongoing stage two metallurgical testwork at its Canegrass Battery Materials Project in Western Australia.
The $10.25 million market capitalisation company says results, generated from sighter roasting testwork completed on 16 samples of high-quality magnetic concentrate, have delivered vanadium (V2O5) recoveries up to 93.2% via a water leach, representing a total recovery of 86.7% V2O5 from the ore feed.
Based on the results received, Viking’s metallurgical consultants have determined the next stage of the testwork. Leach bulk roasting products using water to dissolve liberated vanadium into solution and assay will also be undertaken by the company.
Viking will also seek to complete the purification process to produce a minimum of 98% V2O5 flake product and investigate options for further refining purification process to produce high purity more than 99% V2O5 flake product.
Managing Director and CEO Julian Woodcock says the company will proceed with bulk roasting testwork on a 5kg sample of magnetic concentrate using Soda Ash with a roasting duration of 90 minutes at a temperature of 1,150C.
“We have achieved another key milestone for the Canegrass Project by successfully extracting and recovering the Vanadium from the high-quality magnetic concentrate we recently produced as part of the testwork program.
With recoveries of V2O5 from the concentrate up to 93.2%, the pProject has once again exceeded our expectations. This is a significant step for the project, as until now, while we believed that the vanadium would be recoverable, we had not yet demonstrated it.
I am excited by the prospect that we may be able to produce a high-quality flake product greater than 99% purity V2O5 which attracts premium pricing, and we will investigate this opportunity as part of this testwork.”
Sighter roasting testwork on the samples collected from the bulk ‘high-quality’ magnetite concentrate produced grades of 1.43% V2O5, 59% Fe, and 11.7% TiO2.
This is the first time vanadium has been recovered into solution for Canegrass ore, unlocking the pathway to a flowsheet for vanadium production.
Sighter roasting tests are used to determine the optimum combination of reagents and roasting conditions ahead of proceeding to bulk roasting testwork and then purification.
Meanwhile, Viking announces it will develop test plans for flotation testwork on tail residues from magnetic concentrate process to determine if nickel, cobalt, and copper can be recovered into sulphide concentrates.
The company will also investigate options for further refining purification processes to produce a high purity, greater than 99% V2O5 flake product.
Viking will also develop plans for floatation testwork on tail residues from magnetic concentrate process to determine if Ni, Cu and Co can be recovered into sulphide concentrates.
Today’s (11 March 2024) results follow Viking last week posting ‘high quality’ concentrate grades up to 1.43% V2O5, 59% iron, and 11.7% titanium dioxide, as reported by Mining.com.au.
Viking Mines is a battery minerals-focused explorer with assets in Western Australia. The company’s assets are considered to be prospective for lithium, gold, and vanadium.
The Canegrass Project sits in the Murchison region of Western Australia, about 620km northeast of Perth. It benefits from 95km-square of exploration tenements.
Write to Adam Drought at Mining.com.au
Images: Viking Mines
