Triton Minerals is set to accelerate studies on the mineralisation of vanadium at the Nicanda Hill project in Mozambique.
The company’s decision to proceed with the advancement of the project comes after an independent review confirmed the potential of a shallow upper zone of the vanadium deposit and potential processing options.
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With a JORC Resource of 1.44 billion tonnes of vanadium at a grade of 0.29% V2O5, the Nicanda Hill project has minimal mining costs due to processing of graphite tailings.
The company is assessing the feasibility of producing a vanadium concentrate or product from the project in the wake of the recent increase in the price of vanadium pentoxide.
Triton Minerals managing director Peter Canterbury said: “Whilst we were aware of the size of the vanadium deposit, these studies have highlighted significant zones of vanadium within the Nicanda Hill orebody and demonstrate that valuable synergies may be achieved by producing both graphite and vanadium.
“These recent developments will assist the commercialisation discussions underway on Nicanda Hill and the company’s efforts to introduce a joint venture partner into what is a world scale vanadium and graphite deposit.
“We believe this will be complementary to our development of the Ancuabe Graphite Project in Mozambique and will provide significant regional synergies for the company.”
Currently, the company is undertaking a mineralogical study into the vanadium mineralisation at the project, which will be fed into a planned metallurgical test work programme.
Triton is also planning to carry out an additional investigation to confirm the proportions of the vanadium minerals in the areas with greatest vanadium content.
Data from the investigation will enable the development of the vanadium recovery processes to a concentrate from the Nicanda Hill resource.
