Roasting kiln for Gabanintha vanadium plant
Technology Metals Australia (TMT) has chosen FLSmidth as the preferred supplier of the key roasting kiln section of their Gabanintha vanadium processing and metallurgical plant in Western Australia.
The award follows the successful pilot-scale test work completed during the feasibility study, during which salt roasting was conducted on a bulk sample of Gabanintha magnetic concentrate at FLSmidth’s facility in Pennsylvania, USA.
Technology Metals Australia’s Gabanintha Project is located 40km south of Meekatharra in the Western Australia. The project contains 5.5 km strike length of high grade mineralised gabbro and is one of the highest-grade vanadium deposits in the world. The project is located in a Tier 1 mining jurisdiction surrounded by excellent infrastructure.
Since listing in December 2016, Technology Metals Australia has identified a global resource of 131Mt @ 0.9% V2O5 including a high grade zone of 71Mt @ 1.1% V2O5 within a single massive magnetite layer. A full range of metallurgical test work has shown that the orebody can be processed using conventional salt roast techniques to produce a high quality >99% purity V2O5 product.
“We are delighted to receive the Notice of Award from TMT to supply a rotary roasting kiln to their Gabanintha Vanadium Project. This underlines FLSmidth’s strong record as a leading equipment supplier in the battery minerals sector. With proven equipment combined with local knowledge and significant experience in the battery minerals area, FLSmidth is well placed to support this growing mining segment,” says Manfred Schaffer, Mining President, FLSmidth.
Managing Director of TMT. Ian Prentice, comments: “We are very pleased to have further developed Technology Metals’ relationship with FLSmidth. Formalising this relationship with the world’s leading supplier of rotary kilns enables us to leverage off FLSmidth’s expertise to further de-risk the development of the world-class, large-scale, low-cost, long-life Gabanintha Vanadium Project.”
Vanadium is a hard, silvery grey, ductile metal that has traditionally been employed in the steel industry where it is primarily used in metal alloys such as rebar and structural steel. An emerging and likely significant use for vanadium is in the fast-growing energy storage (battery) sector, due to the increasing use of vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs).
VRFBs are an efficient storage and re-supply solution for renewable energy as they can store large amounts of previously generated energy for later use. As such, vanadium is an important metal in creating a low-carbon future and is in line with our MissionZero objectives.
