Surefire Resources’ new partnerships and test results signal bright future for Victory Bore vanadium project

Surefire Resources (ASX: SRN) had a run of success at its Victory Bore vanadium project in Western Australia during the March quarter, with multiple agreements reached and positive study results highlighting the quality of its flagship asset.

Victory Bore contains one of the largest vanadium resources in Australia, with a mineral resource estimate of 464 million tonnes at 0.3% vanadium oxide, 5.12% titanium oxide, 17.7% iron and an ore reserve of 93Mt at 0.35% vanadium oxide, 5.2% titanium oxide and 19.8% iron.

The rich critical minerals make-up of the project continues to attract global interest, particularly from the Middle East.

Saudi agreements

During the quarter, Surefire entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Saudi Arabian company Ajlan & Bros Mining and Metals.

A wholly-owned subsidiary of Ajlan & Bros Holdings, the company has leading mining, processing, manufacturing and development capabilities in Saudi Arabia and internationally.

The company was established to invest in a diversified portfolio of projects across Saudi Arabia’s key economic growth sectors as part of the kingdom’s Vision 2030 program.

The Ajlan MoU is a perfect fit with the company’s business development plan to have a Saudi partner to jointly progress a feasible development pathway for the project and to take advantage of the incentives available in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for resource projects.

Those funding incentives offer up to 75% of capital expenditure for mineral processing projects.

Surefire also entered into an MoU with RASI Investment Company late in the quarter.

Also based in Saudi Arabia, RASI has established a new fund specifically for investing in overseas projects and currently invests in the mining, mining trading, manufacturing and laboratory areas—all key economic growth sectors in the Vision 2030 program as the country transitions away from its dependence on oil and gas.

The MoU provides RASI with an opportunity to invest in the Victory Bore project to become a major stakeholder.

Victory Bore progress

Surefire continues to make strong progress in its Victory Bore development work, obtaining quotes during the quarter for completion of the next stage definitive feasibility study.

These follow the receipt of positive results in late 2023 for a pre-feasibility study and are now being assessed in conjunction with other work streams on the project.

The company also obtained “remarkable” results for tests on the extraction of vanadium, with a 91% level obtained after a 96-hour leach directly from magnetite concentrate.

Test work was also carried out on pre-treated magnetite concentrate and achieved 97% recovery of vanadium after 24 hours, a much-improved recovery time.

This result was achieved by further optimising the pre-leach and leach conditions, which are part of the proprietary nature of the process.

No heat treatment or roasting of the concentrate has been applied or was required.

Although titanium recovery was lower than the 88% achieved originally, further leaching time achieved 98% recovery levels.