AVL receives $1.25m grant

Australian Vanadium has received a $1.25 million grant from the federal government to find ways to improve vanadium production.

The Cooperative Research Centres Project grant for critical minerals will partly fund a $4.9 million project undertaken in conjunction with engineering firm Wood plc, laboratory and service provider ALS, research institute ANSTO, and Curtin University.

AVL has committed an additional $2.5 million to the project and participating partners have also contributed.

The researchers are aiming to discover how to increase recoveries from mine to mill, develop an ultra-high purity vanadium pentoxide production path, extract valuable by-products, and reduce waste products from mining and processing.

AVL chief operating officer Todd Richardson said the results of this research and development project would have far-reaching benefits in the vanadium market globally and would enable them to develop and operate a low cost, fully integrated vanadium operation in Western Australia.

The project will complement ongoing metallurgical testwork being undertaken by AVL as part of the definitive feasibility study.

The research project is expected to start in 2020 and finish in December 2022.

AVL is developing the Australian Vanadium Project located 43kms south of Meekatharra.

Shares in AVL fluctuated during the day but closed unchanged at 1.2 cents.