Surefire (ASX:SRN) continues to receive high-grade vanadium assays at Victory Bore, shares soar

Highlights:

• Surefire has shared the second tranche of assay results from the recently completed RC drilling at its 100%-owned Victory Bore Vanadium Deposit.
• The campaign clearly defined three wide, continuous, and consistent vanadium lodes.
• The company expects the new lode material to boost resource potential.

Shares of Surefire Resources NL (ASX:SRN) gained more than 16% to trade at AU$0.014 in the early hours of 9 January 2023.

The surge in the share price was triggered by Surefire’s update on the encouraging second tranche of assay results from the recently completed reverse circulation (RC) drilling at its 100%-owned Victory Bore Vanadium Deposit. The company has now received 67% of the assay results.  

The assays have highlighted intersections of up to 70m @ 0.43% vanadium pentoxide (V₂O₅).

Drilling defines three wide, continuous, and consistent vanadium lodes

The drilling campaign comprised 62 holes for a total of 5,189m to in-fill existing drill sections. As per Surefire, the campaign clearly defined three wide, continuous, and consistent vanadium lodes.

Of these lodes, Main Lode and Central Lode were delineated by previous drilling on 400m sections. This program infilled a 1.4-kilometre portion of the resource to 100m spaced sections, aiming to upgrade the resource category.

Drill holes targeted a south-south-westerly trending newly interpreted Banded Iron Formation (BIF) dipping 72^o west within a coarse crystalline gabbro.

Three parallel mineralised lodes add 154m of combined true width

Main Lode: Situated on the eastern side, this lode is thick, predictable along strike and down dip with wide consistent downhole intersection thicknesses rarely less than 50m and up to 92m. The V₂O₅ grades range from 0.41% to 0.48% V₂O₅.

Central Lode: It lies approximately 70m west of Main Lode. This lode features mineralised thicknesses varying from 24m to 64m in downhole intersections.

West Lode: This lode remains open to the west and has already been shown to average a 60m true width of vanadium mineralisation @ 0.23% V₂O₅.

(Data source: SRN update, 9 January 2023)

(Data source: SRN update, 9 January 2023)

Way ahead

The remaining 13 drill holes or 589 sample assays are due. The company plans to lodge updated drilling database, after verification and QA/QC check, for re-estimation of the Mineral Resource to conform with the JORC resource criteria.

Surefire is progressing with data compilation for the completion of a pre-feasibility study (PFS) after an encouraging Scoping Study assessment of the project.

Based on the thickness and continuity of the mineralisation, the company expects the Victory Bore vanadium deposit to sustain a large, long-life bulk mining operation at a low stripping ratio, mining dilution and mining operation costs.