LONDON (Alliance News) - Bushveld Minerals Ltd saw its shares rise Tuesday after it said metallurgical test work at its Vanadium project in Limpopo Province, South Africa, had suggested it can have additional layers declared as mineral resources at the site.
In a statement, the minerals developer said it has completed additional tests on two samples from hanging wall units to the main magnetite layer, to assess the grade and recovery of vanadium to a magnetite concentrate.
The results showed concentrate grades of 1.5 - 1.6% vanadium pentoxide for the two layers, and excellent vanadium recoveries of more than 90%. It added that the results showed that layers with low in-situ vanadium grades of 0.3-0.7% can still be upgraded to suitable vanadium grades in magnetite concentrates.
"These metallurgical results confirm our expectations that suitable vanadium grades and recoveries can be achieved from the hanging wall layers of the (main magnetite layer), and are the first step towards having additional layers declared as Mineral Resources. We will continue with our financial evaluation of these layers, and announce the results in due course," Chief Executive Fortune Mojapelo.
"A positive outcome of the financial evaluation would allow us to define up to 156 metric tonnes more resource, in addition to the 69 metric tonnes JORC resource already defined in the hanging wall of the MML. The objective of this effort is to define the value associated with the hanging wall layers of the MML, which are currently considered waste in the recently published Scoping Study for the Bushveld Vanadium Project," he added.
Bushveld Minerals shares were up 3.3% at 3.10 pence Tuesday morning.
By Steve McGrath; stevemcgrath@alliancenews.com; @stevemcgrath1
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Bushveld Minerals (BMN)