King River eyes production at Kimberley vanadium project

King River Resources has outlined a conceptual development plan for an open-cut mining operation as the company eyes production at its Speewah vanadium project in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.

With the largest vanadium-in-magnetite deposit based on tonnes and vanadium pentoxide content in the country at Speewah, King River says the open-cut mine will be scaled to five million tonnes per annum of ore to feed an on-site processing plant to produce high-grade magnetite concentrate.

The company plans to export the concentrate to be refined by salt and reduction roast methods in order to produce vanadium pentoxide, titanium dioxide and iron co-products.

Speewah currently holds a mammoth global resource of 4.7 billion tonnes grading 0.3 per cent vanadium pentoxide, 3.3 per cent titanium dioxide and 14.7 per cent iron.

King River is currently preparing to produce a high-grade vanadium-bearing magnetite concentrate from the Central vanadium deposit at the site using crushing, grinding and magnetic separation processes. The beneficiation process being explored has the ability to produce a magnetite concentrate with between 2.15 and 2.64 per cent vanadium pentoxide that the company says is higher than other Australian vanadium deposits.

Production optimisation tests on drill core samples are currently underway to produce a magnetite concentrate of high vanadium grade, low in contaminants and with a higher mass yield and vanadium deportment.

Metallurgical tests have also commenced with Murdoch University’s Hydrometallurgy Research Group aiming at developing high-purity vanadium pentoxide, titanium dioxide and iron through trialling roast techniques and using hydrogen as a reductant.

The initiative was launched earlier this year with the purpose of developing a new process flowsheet that could promote multi-commodity production using ore from the Speewah vanadium deposit. Management says salt roast test work already completed from the studies delivered extraction results of up to 92 per cent vanadium concentrate using ore from Speewah.

King River is also a participant in the Future Batteries Industry Cooperative Research Centre that aims to aid in the development of battery industries that could bolster Australia’s future energy options.

Vanadium has long been used to create steel alloys, nuclear reactors and aircraft carriers. However, the material’s employment in the production of vanadium redox flow batteries, master alloys and titanium oxide pigments has recently brought it to the forefront of an emerging new energy market with the global push towards low-carbon energy production.

King River appears to have plenty of potential options with its plans for its massive vanadium deposit in WA and now that a mining plan has been outlined all signs point to production.

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