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of 2020 deciding exactly iron and there are a few options we are being addressed. In January, the com-
what that will look like. looking to bring online. We would love to pany announced completion of a second
The 2018 PFS gave a tick partner with a company with a high sili- 2,000m RC programme in two months.
of approval for development ca, alumina iron ore project that we can “Potential financiers were saying that
and work since has focused blend with our product and then sell.” such a capex would require a long mine
on refining capex and opex In addition to improving “There have life,” Algar said. “So, we have returned to
numbers to build a more ro- been a few delays on piloting, but we areas of the resource where previously
bust economic case. want to get the piloting right,” he said. we didn’t have the time or money to drill.
In October, AVL an- “We wanted to make sure the material Three blocks in the south-east have a
nounced a revised pro- is sustainable for the entire orebody. We combined 50mt of inferred resources so
cessing plan for the project looked at the pre-feasibility studies in we are targeting them for conversion to
which will see ore mined other minerals and found that if you rush indicated which would extend the mine
and beneficiated on site be-
fore 850,000t of material is
trucked to a location near
the Port of Geraldton for
back-end processing.
“We’ve been looking
at moving the plant since
January 2018. Gas has al-
ways been a primary driver
of processing economics
and leaving the plant on
site came with a $40 mil-
lion capex component. We
began an optimisation study
and said if we moved closer
to the Bunbury-Dampier
gas pipeline it would result
in cheaper capital costs and
less gas so therefore lower
operating costs because we
would be paying almost no
transmission fee.
“The pipeline capex is
now less than $15 million
with gas costing $2-3 against $8 previ-
ous, so it has been a big step.”
The exact make-up of the Geraldton
processing plant is yet to be established
with AVL continuing to refine the flow
sheet.
The company is pursuing a pelletis-
ing and roasting path to production of
primary vanadium with the most recent
bench-scale testing by Metso Corpora- A sample of the vanadium ore on the Australian vanadium project. AVL believes it has one
tion producing vanadium extraction rates of the highest quality vanadium ores available globally
averaging 95.4% from pelletised roasting
compared to 85-88% from rotary kiln ex- that part of the process you will mess life to plus-20 years [up from 17 years in
traction. it up, whether it’s vanadium, lithium or the PFS].”
Algar said while AVL was the first west- gold.” The company is currently building the
ern company to use pelletised roasting, it The ongoing piloting work has meant results into an updated resource state-
was far from a new technology. DFS work has been slower than antici- ment, due for release this quarter.
“It is not new technology, it is new in- pated but Algar is unconcerned. He said With DFS work set to be complete and
novations of proven technology,” he said. the delays had allowed AVL time to delve financing discussions beginning, Algar is
“It is proving more efficient from an en- further into the orebody to tighten the expecting 2020 to be “a big year’ for AVL.
ergy point-of-view and dust and recov- flow sheet. “Funding is critical but we want a pro-
ery points-of-view and reduces the CO2 “Geometallurgy is the key driver of ject that is not going to suffer in the due
because we are reducing gas consump- this project so if the geology team and diligence process,” he said. “We need to
tion.” the processing teams haven’t reconciled have done the best job by the time the
AVL is also pursuing options for the their views around the orebody, there is banks come in as we want limited time
iron and titanium-rich calcine by-product going to be trouble,” Algar said. “We have between getting a partner in and making
at Gabanintha. taken our time and are using all the un- a decision to mine.”
“The pelletised roasting creates the derstanding of consultants and the vana- – Dominic Piper
opportunity for an iron ore by-product,” dium team to do that.”
Algar said. “The concentrate is 55-57% The size of the global resource is also

aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT FeBRUaRY 2020 Page 45