Yarrabubba, which is south of the main Gabanintha resource, has grown 110% for indicated resources to 20.2 million tonnes at 0.9% vanadium, and total resources are up 32% to 36.6Mt at 0.8%.

 

The upgrade comes with a high-grade portion of the deposit of 19Mt at 1.1%, increasing the overall MTMP high-grade component to 79.8Mt at 1.1%.

 

The MTMP's measured and indicated resources grown to 50.2Mt at 0.9%, within total resources of 146Mt at 0.8%. 

 

Managing director Ian Prentice said the next steps were to update Yarrabubba's reserves.

 

Yarrabubba is located within a granted mining lease but was not included in the original Gabanintha definitive feasibility study.

 

Preliminary roasting tests on Yarrabubba ore used the same methods as used Gabanintha, and delivered comparable results, however Yarrabubba is said to deliver a much higher vanadium content of Yarrabubba concentrate.

 

Prentice said it offered a pathway to materially grow the MTMP operating life beyond the current 16-year life towards 25 years, for what the company hopes will emerge as a large-scale, world-class vanadium development project.

 

Yarrabubba is expected to reduce funding and implementation risk of Gabanintha.

 

Delivering a significant upgrade is hoped to attract prospective financiers

 

TMT recently secured a A$13.5 million investment at 37.5c from private equity firm Resource Capital Fund, becoming an 18% shareholder, as part of a $20 million capital raising.

 

Development is nominally targeted for late 2022 with a $450 million capital cost indicated by the 2019 DFS.

 

Shares in TMT were steady at 36.5c this morning, valuing it at $67 million.

 

The stock has traded between 29-48c over the past year.