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LONDON (Alliance News) - Aura Energy Ltd on Thursday said its confidence in Sweden's Haggan vanadium project continues to increase as work progresses.
Aura has carried out an evaluation of beneficiation by flotation by mica minerals as well as the rejection of calcite.
This work, it said, showed best results of 83% of vanadium could be recovered to 64% of total mass, and it achieved a rejection of 80% of calcite.
This rejection, Aura said, will reduce acid consumption and thus operating costs.
Aura is overall encouraged by the overall cost projects for Haggan, but publication of projected financial information requires an upgrade to Haggan's resource.
Drilling work has been "slower than anticipated", Aura said, with some due to be completed by the end of 2018 but the rest early in 2019.
Executive Chairman Peter Reeve said: "The progress on the Haggan scoping study has been rapid and driven by the fact Aura has been working on the Haggan project for over 10 years."
"Aura has significant drilling, geological evaluation, mineralogy, and metallurgical test work completed placing the company in a technically strong position compared to many other peer vanadium projects which remain at an early stage".
Reeve added: "With vanadium, a commodity that is currently undergoing a significant resurgence, the activity at the Haggan deposit in Sweden has placed Aura in a strong position in the battery metals sector."
Shares were 3.3% higher on Thursday at a price of 1.08 pence each.