Tando unearths further ‘outstanding’ high-grade vanadium, ahead of resource upgrade
Tando Resources has produced further high-grade vanadium intersections while infill drilling at SPD.
Tando Resources (ASX: TNO) has continued its run of “outstanding” high-grade vanadium results from ongoing drilling at its SPD project in South Africa.
The assays come from the company’s latest round of infill drilling and provide enough information for Tando to update the mineral resource.
Notable assays from drilling were 20m at 0.92% vanadium from surface, including 10.4m at 1.07% vanadium from 4.8m; 7.9m at 1.22% vanadium from 26.6m, including 3.1m at 1.52% vanadium from 32m; and 41.5m at 0.76% vanadium from 36m, including 8.3m at 1.23% vanadium from 53.9m.
According to Tando, the increased detail from the infill drilling will lead to the mineral resource containing a higher portion of material in the indicated category.
Additionally, the detail will better enable Tando to define the higher-grade massive magnetite layers, boosting the company’s potential to carry out selective mining to meet offtake specifications.
High-grade vanadium concentrate
These latest assays follow Tando’s large-scale test work which generated a 2.2% vanadium concentrate, which the company claims is one of the world’s highest-grade reported vanadium concentrates.
Plant simulation test work was carried out on bulk samples from SPD using the company’s proposed processing route and compared well with previous laboratory scale Davis Tube analysis which produced 25m at 2.42% vanadium from 23m, including 8m at 2.32% vanadium (for mass recovery of 41%) and 35m at 2.15% vanadium from 21m (mass recovery 45%).
With the latest assays now at hand, Tando expects to release its updated mineral resource estimate shortly.
Additionally, the large-scale test work has enabled Tando to gauge expected capital and operating costs for a proposed beneficiation plant.
This is expected to feed into feasibility studies, with the current scoping study scheduled to be released a few weeks after the mineral resource has been published.
Under Tando’s phase one production project strategy, the company aims to mine the high-grade vanadium zones and treat the ore via a simple beneficiation process, which will offer a short lead time to production and early cash flow.
At market open, shares in Tando were at $0.10.