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NEWS

Chief support for Mount Peake

TNG Ltd’s Mount Peake vanadium-
titanium-iron project has won strong
support from the highest office in the

Northern Territory.

The strategic metals hopeful last

month signed a project facilitation agree-

ment with the NT Government over a

proposed site near Darwin for the TIVAN

metals refinery, providing TNG with cer-

tainty of process over one of the key as-

pects of the project, about 235km north-

west of Alice Springs.

NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner was

present at the signing ceremony with

TNG managing director Paul Burton and

SMS Group head of process engineering

Herbert Weissenbaeck.

SMS has signed a binding heads of

agreement with TNG for the engineering,

design and construction of the TIVAN fa-

cility.

In a statement released to the media,

Gunner said the landmark agreement

secured ongoing employment opportu-

nities for hundreds of people in Central TNG has received overwhelming support from the Northern Territory to develop
Australia and Darwin. the Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project

“This is an $850 million project with the

potential for 500 jobs during construction Minister’s office down,” Burton said. TNG has received all approvals from

and more than 200 jobs during operation “It is a very important milestone for us the Traditional Owners, including author-

of the mine, plus more than 1,200 jobs and it allows us to now fully scope out isation for the construction of causeways

during construction and 400 jobs during that land, get all the studies done and to provide haul road access to the pro-

operation of the refinery,” Gunner said. engage with all the government depart- posed mine site.

Burton told Paydirt his company’s al- ments and the community.” Project financing discussions are on-

most decade-long bid to bring the Mount It has been a busy start to the year for going with the help of independent cor-

Peake project to life was now a major TNG, with the company looking to final- porate advisory house Gresham Advi-

step closer. ise a number of key regulatory agree- sory Partners Ltd and are expected to

“This is an agreement that the NT Gov- ments at the time of print, including a continue into the second half.

ernment doesn’t go into lightly because supplement to the environmental impact TNG and SMS are also assessing po-

it is a sign of full support from the Chief statement. tential changes to the flowsheet for the

TIVAN refinery, with the likelihood of re-

vised opex and capex estimates to be

released later this year.

SMS last year identified potential sav-

ings of up to $50 million per annum in

operating costs based on an innovative

redesign of the vanadium extraction cir-

cuit within the processing facility.

TNG shareholders are backing the

company’s strategy, helping to raise $7

million via a fully subscribed SPP late

last year to guarantee enough funding

for the proposed work programmes at

Mount Peake.

“We did it because our shareholders

are very loyal and we had previously

had offers of capital which we’ve taken

but not offered to shareholders, so we

thought it was the right time for them to

be offered some stock while it’s still at

Mount Peake is tipped to produce 17,560 tpa vanadium pentoxide, 236,000 tpa these relatively low levels,” Burton said.

titanium dioxide and 637,000 tpa pig iron over an initial life of 17 years “Companies always need capital and I

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