[Ferro-Alloys.com] A critical milestone has been achieved for the first time at Canegrass, with the delivery of a Vanadium Pentoxide (V2O5) flake, unlocking the pathway to a flowsheet for Vanadium production.

Bulk roasting testwork was completed on concentrate which was subsequently leached to produce a vanadium rich solution.

The solution underwent a desilication, evaporation and precipitation process to produce V2O5 flake product.

The proof of concept has now been established using tried and tested industry methods to deliver a final V2O5 flake product.

Further testwork has commenced on remaining magnetic concentrate sample to refine and optimise the process, with the goal of producing high purity electrolyte and V2O5 flake.

The Stage 2 testwork has been hugely successful in taking samples obtained from Canegrass drilling programs, through the full process pathway to produce V2O5 flake.

Stage 3 testwork has commenced which will focus on producing a larger (>80kg) sample of magnetic concentrate and associated non-magnetic tail.

The magnetic concentrate will undergo specific testwork to separate the Iron from the Titanium and the non-magnetic concentrate will go through a sulphide floatation process to produce a Copper, Nickel, Cobalt sulphide concentrate.

If both objectives are achieved, this will significantly improve the potential cashflow generation of the Project with potential revenue streams available from V2O5, Fe, TiO2, Cu, Ni & Co.

Viking Mines Limited  is pleased to provide an update on the ongoing metallurgical progress at the Company’s flagship Canegrass Battery Minerals Project (“the Project” or “Canegrass”), located in the Murchison Region of Western Australia. Vanadium Pentoxide (“V2O5”) flake has been produced (Figure 1) as part of the ongoing Stage 2 metallurgical testwork on samples collected from the Fold Nose deposit within the Canegrass Project.1

The production of V2O5 flake is a first for the Project and is a critical milestone as it demonstrates that the metallurgy is amenable to producing the highly valuable Vanadium found within this large Mineral Resource.

Commenting on the progress of the Stage 2 metallurgical testwork, Viking Mines Managing Director & CEO Julian Woodcock said:

“I am extremely pleased with the progress made and the production of V2O5 flake confirms the proof of concept for the production of highly valuable Vanadium from the Canegrass Project.

“The Company will now proceed with roasting the remaining sample of magnetic concentrate to optimise and further purify and enhance the product.

“On advice received from our metallurgical consultants, we are refining the test plans with the knowledge obtained through the testwork completed so far, to produce both a high purity electrolyte and high-quality flake product targeting >99% purity V2O5 which attracts a premium price.

“In parallel we have commenced our Stage 3 testwork which is designed to produce concentrates of Cu, Ni, Co & Ti using various processing methods on both the magnetic concentrate and non-magnetic tail.

“With this next step in the testwork we are seeking to extract the maximum value from the inherent value we have in the Project and looking to unlock it for the benefit of our shareholders.”

V2O5 Flake Production

A process of desilication, evaporation, precipitation, filtration, and calcination has been completed to produce the V2O5 flake from the vanadium bearing solution which was produced subsequent to the roasting step completed as announced to the ASX on 11 March 2024.  The testwork has been successful through the delivery of a final V2O5 flake product (Figure 1). Now that the industry standard process flowsheet (Figure 2) has been tested and deemed successful, a process of refinement and optimisation has commenced with the updated objective of producing both a high purity vanadium electrolyte and V2O5 flake.

Stage 2 Metallurgical Testwork Programme

Testwork commenced in December 2023 on samples collected from the Fold Nose deposit at the Project. Samples were composited ahead of producing a magnetic concentrate before further processing with the objective of producing high purity V2O5 flake along with other marketable products including >58% Fe Magnetite Concentrate and Cu, Ni, Co sulphide concentrates.

Prior to the production of the V2O5 flake, key milestones have been achieved and delivered:1,2

A high-quality magnetic concentrate grading V2O5 1.43%, Fe 59% & TiO2 11.7%.

High metal recoveries to concentrate of 93.0%V2O5, 83.7% Fe and 79.5% TiO2.

High mass recovery achieved of 52.8%.

Sighter roasting testwork delivered peak recovery of 93.2% V2O5 from concentrate into solution.

Overall peak recoveries of 86.6% V2O5 from the ore feed into solution.

NEXT STEPS

The Company has commenced with a series of additional metallurgical testwork programmes to further enhance and optimise the potential process flow sheet for the Canegrass Project. These testwork programmes will allow the Company to better understand the ore characteristics from Canegrass and will enable the Company to achieve the maximum potential value from the Project.  Commence roasting of the remaining 5kg sample of magnetic concentrate from the stage 2 testwork programme.  Using this sample, refine and optimise the roasting, leaching and purification process to produce V2O5 flake through adjustment of the quantities of reagents used.

Produce a high-purity V2O5 flake and vanadium electrolyte.

Commence compositing and magnetic separation (targeting >80kg of magnetic concentrate) on a newly submitted samples for the following stage 3 testwork programmes.  Sulphide floatation testwork on the non-magnetic tail with the objective of producing a Cu, Ni, Co sulphide concentrate.  Testwork to separate the Titanium from the Iron to both increase the grade of iron concentrate and produce a sperate high Titanium concentrate to determine if higher quality saleable products can be produced.

• [Editor:tianyawei]