Viking Mines (ASX: VKA) boosts vanadium resource by 103% at Canegrass Battery Minerals Project

Highlights

• The updated MRE delivered 103% growth and now contains >2.2 billion pounds of vanadium pentoxide (V₂O₅).
• The MRE stands at 146Mt at 0.70% V₂O₅, 31.8% Fe & 6.6% TiO₂.
• Significantly, a high-grade subset of MRE was calculated at 5Mt at 0.87% V₂O₅, 37.3% Fe & 8.0% TiO₂
• The Company plans to assess the opportunity to produce a direct ship iron ore concentrate with credits for vanadium content.

Viking Mines Limited (ASX: VKA) has reported an update on the Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for its Canegrass Battery Minerals Project, Western Australia.

The MRE update has been successful, as contained V₂O₅ increased by 103% to 2.2 billion pounds within the total MRE of 146Mt at 0.70% V₂O₅, 31.8% Fe and 6.6% TiO₂.

A high-grade subset of the MRE offers the basis to advance and commence a scoping study to evaluate project options. The subset is 27.5mt @ 0.87% V₂O₅, 37.3% Fe and 8.0% TiO₂.

Following the completion of extensive drilling and MRE, the Company identified areas for further growth at the Fold Nose, Kinks, and Kinks South deposits. These developments offer further upside opportunity to increase the tonnes and grade of the high-grade subset of the total MRE.

More

The MRE update was conducted by MEC Mining for the Canegrass project, producing a significant increase over the last estimate.

In the updated MRE, the tonnage has increased considerably, with improvements in grade for all target commodities. Moreover, the deleterious elements’ grade has decreased, leading to a higher quality ore more amenable to processing to deliver a magnetic concentrate.

The primary commodities targeted by the project include V₂O₅, titanium, iron, nickel, cobalt and copper. The updated MRE has identified substantial quantities of these minerals.

The table below gives a summary of the contained commodities within the MRE at the specified cut-off grades.

Contained quantities in the MRE of the target commodities above a 0.5% V₂O₅ cut-off (Image source: Company update)

Contained quantities in the MRE of the target commodities above a 0.8% V₂O₅ cut-off (Image source: Company update)

With further drilling in the areas identified through the MRE and the latest extensive drilling, it is expected that the subset would grow and surpass the VKA’s target of >30Mt and commensurate growth of the MRE >0.5% V₂O₅ cut-off is expected as a byproduct of this work.

In future, the Company plans to conduct drill programmes to examine these areas.

Next steps

In less than one year since the acquisition of the project, the Company has concluded the MRE, reporting significant increase in quantity and quality of the resource.  

Ongoing works and plans (Data source: Company update)

VKA shares traded at AU$0.011 apiece on 20 November 2023.