An International Patent Application has been filed for the revolutionary new hydrometallurgical process developed for TNG’s 100%-owned Mount Peake iron-vanadium project in the Northern Territory, Australia. The newly-named TIVANTM Process was jointly developed last year in conjunction with TNG’s metallurgical consultants, Mineral Engineering Technical Services (METS). For the first time using hydrometallurgy, the TIVAN process has successfully extracted commercial grades of vanadium, titanium and iron from the Mount Peake deposit, which is hosted by a similar rock type (magnetite-gabbro) to that which hosts most known vanadium deposits worldwide.
A joint patent application for the process was lodged by TNG and METS in May 2010, and an International Patent Application (PCT/AU2011/000519) has now been filed. In addition, TNG and METS have now named the process The TIVAN Process and submitted a Trade Mark application. The process uses a combination of acid leaching, solvent extraction and chemical stripping to selectively recover the valuable metals.
Successful test work was undertaken last year using the new process on Mount Peake drill core, and TNG is currently undertaking further diamond drilling to extract a representative sample of approximately 1 t of core samples for use in larger scale metallurgical testwork and pilot plant studies, planned for the second half of this year. The upcoming pilot plant metallurgical testwork program will provide a definitive test of the commercial potential of the process and form part of the prefeasibility study (PFS) on the Mount Peake project.
TNG’s Managing Director, Paul Burton: “Test work conducted on this new process to date indicates its significant potential to contribute to the low-cost development of one of Australia’s largest vanadium projects at Mount Peake. With this application, we are now moving to the next stage of global patent protection for a technology with the potential to support the development of a fully vertically integrated ferrous metals business for the company.”
