Surefire Resources is set to hit the go button on a diamond drilling campaign at its wholly owned Victory Bore vanadium deposit, about 530km north-east of Perth in WA after tying down a drilling contractor to complete the probe.
The company already has its footprint all over a 151 million tonne resource at 0.44 per cent vanadium pentoxide, 25 per cent iron and 6.73 per cent titanium dioxide at the operation.
The grounds of the proposed mining zones were recently assessed and a list potential drilling locations narrowed down.
The company says core from the diamond drilling program will subsequently be used for geotechnical analysis, metallurgical testing and to finetune its beneficiation flowsheet and open pit mine design for the project.
According to Surefire, Victory Bore hosts several additional untested magnetic prospects that could generate even more tonnage and boost the grades of its current resource.
The venture is also set to get stuck into a drill program at its nearby Unaly Hill vanadium project, where it established a significant resource about a decade ago through the drilling of anomalous magnetic targets.
The inferred mineral resource at Unaly Hill currently stands at around 86 million tonnes at 0.42 per cent vanadium pentoxide, 24.8 per cent iron and 4.5 per cent titanium dioxide for a contained 36.5 million tonnes of vanadium.
With the two projects in its back pocket, Surefire collectively lays claim to a total inferred resource of around 237 million tonnes at 0.43 per cent vanadium pentoxide, 24.9 per cent iron and 5.9 per cent titanium dioxide.
The bumper figures position the assets amongst the largest contained vanadium resources in the state.
Vanadium has traditionally been used to make steel alloys, nuclear reactors and aircraft carriers, however the material has recently shot to prominence due to its application in the production of vanadium redox flow batteries, or ‘VRFBs.’
VRFBs are commonly used in the renewable energy industry to store power for utility-grids, commercial properties and industrial facilities. The devices are also used to hold energy acquired through solar and wind-based applications.
The batteries feature unlimited storage capacity, long life, low maintenance and an almost non-existent environmental footprint. Given the characteristics it is little wonder many believe the battery is the remedy for efficiently storing and accessing low carbon energy.
The company picked up the Victory Bore vanadium project in 2019 from High-Grade Metals and with the market moving at speed towards clean energy solutions, its ventures appear well timed.
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