TNG locks-in Australian Government environmental approval for Mount Peake
TNG receives federal approval for the Mount Peake mine.
TNG Ltd (ASX: TNG) materialised from a trading halt today with news it had locked-in Australian Federal Government environmental approvals for its flagship Mount Peake Vanadium-Titanium-Iron project in the Northern Territory.
The company received the official environmental green light from the federal environment and energy minister Josh Frydenberg on Friday which follows earlier approvals from the Northern Territory Environmental Protection Authority that were granted in January this year.
According to TNG, the federal green light was the final major permitting hurdle to jump and opens the door to begin arranging finance and development, as well as submitting an application for a mining lease with the Northern Territory authorities.
Prior to submitting the mining application, TNG needs to complete its mine management plan which will include the Northern Territory’s Environmental Protection Authority recommendations.
“This federal environmental approval is a huge milestone for all our key stakeholders, but particularly for our development and permitting team and our shareholders, who have waited patiently for this news,” TNG managing director Paul Burton said.
“We will now proceed to seek to finalise the mining agreement with the Central Land Council as soon as possible and secure our mining lease, which, in turn clears the way for site-based construction activities to commence,” Mr Burton said.
Mount Peake project
Earlier this year, TNG derisked Mount Peake after securing three life-of-mine offtake arrangements for Mount Peake’s vanadium, titanium and iron, which is projected to produce 243,000 tonnes vanadium pentoxide, 3.5 million tonnes of titanium dioxide pigment and 10.6Mt of iron oxide over 17-years.
Meanwhile, financing discussions are revolving around the A$853 million capital required to develop an open pit mine and 3Mtpa concentrator that can be expanded to 6Mtpa.
A rail link has been planned to convey the concentrated product to TNG’s planned TIVAN hydrometallurgical refinery in Darwin, which will be based on the company’s proprietary process for extracting the three minerals.
After the A$853 million outlay, Mount Peake is anticipated to generate TNG A$11.7 billion in life-of-mine net cash flow.
Mount Peak has an existing resource of 160Mt grading 0.28% vanadium, 5.3% titanium and 23% iron.
“Against the backdrop of an outstanding performance by all of our key metals over the past 12 months – particularly vanadium and titanium – we believe that the prospects are strong for Mount Peake,” Mr Burton said.
“TNG is working hard to unlock the value of this world class strategic metals resource and to position it as a long-life supplier of high-value batter and steel raw materials for many decades to come,” Mr Burton added.
By mid-afternoon trade, TNG’s share price was at A$0.15 – up more than 3%.