NAIF advancements for two WA projects

Technology Metals Australia and Strandline Resources both announced their flagship Western Australian projects have reached the due diligence phase of the Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility funding assessment process.

Both companies will now work with NAIF to develop a formal investment proposal, which is a precondition for the NAIF board to make an investment decision.

Technology Metals said the NAIF decision affirms the company’s position that its $454 million Gabanintha vanadium project is of strategic importance to the Australian economy.

It alluded to the inclusion of vanadium on the Australian government’s list of critical minerals in Australia.

“The Gabanintha project will be the largest single primary vanadium producer in the world producing on average 12,800 tonnes per annum of vanadium pentoxide, with a lowest quartile operating cost,” it said.

Technology Metals completed the definitive feasibility study on Gabanintha, which is located 40 kilometres south of Meekatharra, in August.

Today, Strandline Resources also announced its Coburn mineral sands project had advanced to the due diligence phase for NAIF funding.

In April, Strandline released a definitive feasibility study for Coburn, which detailed a capital cost of $257 million.

It is located 250km north of the port of Geraldton.

NAIF came into effect on July 2016, with a budget of $5 billion for infrastructure projects in the northern areas of Western Australia and Queensland, and the Northern Territory.

After failing to attract adequate interest, in April this year NAIF broadened the scope of its eligibility criteria, including eliminating a $50 million project threshold and removing a 50 per cent cap on the debt taken on by the NAIF.

Since the changes, several WA miners have been granted approval.

This includes Kalium Lakes, which secured $74 million in funding from NAIF in February for its Beyondie sulphate of potash project near Newman.

Last September, Sheffield Resources secured $95 million to develop power, road and port infrastructure for its Thunderbird mineral sands project near Derby.

In August last year, NAIF also signed off on a $15 million upgrade of Pippingarra Road, a 70km public road to access the Pilgangoora lithium-tantalum mine being developed by Pilbara Minerals, near Port Hedland.