Progress continues on Mid West titanium vanadium projects with processing agreements

One of the world’s largest sources of titanium vanadium deposits is another step closer to being mined following an agreement for its resources to be processed at a plant near Mullewa.

An agreement has been made between mineral companies Neometals and Australian Vanadium Limited, which will see vanadium concentrate from Neometals’ Barrambie Project, 75km north-west of the Sandstone, processed by a proposed AVL site in Tenindewa, east of Mullewa.

Opportunities will be explored over a nine-month agreement with a potential for further deals in the future, AVL said.

The Barrambie project has been labelled one of the largest, and highest-grade sources of titanium vanadium, which can be processed and used in alloys, and is increasingly used for green technology such as batteries.

Vincent Algar, AVL managing director, said the announcement was an important step to develop Mid West and Australian vanadium networks.

“Being able to process our own concentrates and also offer processing infrastructure to other projects, will bring great benefit to the region and Australia as a whole and establish Australia as a cornerstone producer of vanadium products for green steel and energy storage applications,” he said.

Neometals managing director Chris Reed said he looked forward to working with AVL.

“We welcome the opportunity with AVL to investigate co-location, infrastructure sharing and the potential to supply high-grade vanadium co-product from our proposed mineral separation plant,” he said.