Name of the Project
Steelpoortdrift vanadium project.

Location
Limpopo, South Africa.

Project Owner/s
Vanadium Resources, or VR8 (86.49%).

Project Description
Steelpoortdrift has the potential to be a world-class, large-scale and low-cost vanadium producer with competitive operating and capital expenditure (capex) metrics. The proposed operation comprises the Steelpoortdrift mine and concentrator, and the Tweefontein salt roast leach (SRL) operation.

The project involves the openpit mining of titaniferous vanadium ore and the primary treatment of run-of-mine (RoM) through an on-site concentrator, as well as the secondary treatment of concentrate through an SRL plant.

A definitive feasibility study (DFS), released in October 2022, concluded that the project could produce 484 000 t of vanadium pentoxide (V₂O₅) flake over an initial 25-year life-of-mine (LoM), with total concentrate produced estimated at 29.08-million tonnes. Total RoM tonnes over the LoM is estimated at 80.32-million tonnes grading at about 0.71% V₂O₅, with total waste tonnes estimated at 70.54-million tonnes.

The project will be built in two phases.

Phase 1 will operate from Year 1 to 4, based on a mining rate of 1.6-million tonnes a year of vanadium ore at an average in situ grade of 0.83% V₂O₅, which will be processed through the concentrator and SRL plant to produce about 12 000 t/y of V₂O₅ flake.

Phase 2 will entail the expansion of the plant and increase the mining rate to 3.5-million tonnes a year of ore at an average grade of 0.71% V₂O₅, with production almost doubling to about 21 000 t/y of flake.

The DFS further proposes the construction of a solar power plant, which is expected to reduce carbon emissions and carbon tax by 34%.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The October DFS estimates an after-tax net present value (NPV), at a 7.5% discount rate, of $1.21-billion and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 42%, with a payback of 27 months, compared with an NPV of $1.2-million tonnes, at a 7.5% discount rate, and an IRR of 45% in the June 2021 prefeasibility study.

Capital Expenditure
Phase 1 capex is estimated at $211-million. Phase 2 capex is estimated at $188-million.

Planned Start/End Date
Mining and production is scheduled to start at the end of the fourth quarter of 2024.

Latest Developments
VR8 has chosen to modify the back end of the SRL processing plant to produce 98% V₂O₅ for the steel market and 99.5% V₂O₅ for the vanadium flow battery market. The final split between 98% and 99.5% V₂O₅ produced is yet to be determined and will be driven by finalised offtake agreements. 

This modification is different to the single 98% V₂O₅ product that formed the basis of the original DFS, and it has now been incorporated into the front-end engineering design (FEED) process. This will have the benefit of enhancing realised sales pricing by targeting higher-purity forms of V₂O₅.

Consequently, VR8 believes the likely overall net-effect of these changes will result in an enhancement in after-tax NPV when compared with the DFS.

The FEED will form the basis of the proposed project implementation plan and contracting strategy. This will involve finalising material contracts, which will include the completion of remaining detailed design work,  providing a fixed price for the implementation and contracting strategy, as well targeting schedules and performance guarantees for the project. Preparations have started on these tender packages, which will be issued under a competitive tender process.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
Consulmet Metals (SRL plant); DRA Projects (photovoltaic plant); Minopex Technical Advisory (operational readiness); Nurizon Consulting (surface water, near surface geotechnical studies and tailings storage facility design); Red Kite Environmental Solutions and associated specialist consultants (environmental baseline studies and hydrogeology); Sound Mining International (geological modelling, mineral resource estimation, geotechnical studies for mining, openpit optimisation, mine design, scheduling and ore reserve estimation); SPH Kundalila (mining costing); Tenement Mining (compilation of DFS report); and UMS METS (concentrator plant).

Contact Details for Project Information
VR8, tel +61 8 6158 9990 or email contact@vr8.global.