Myself and 1%aday wanted to start a new thread compiling what we currently know about the projects SRN currently has. We will continue to add to this thread with more information, and you are invited to do the same. However, please leave discussion on other company announcements and price movements to other threads to make it easier to navigate this thread. Thanks!
This initial post will just cover the Victory Hil/Unaly Hill and Perenjori projects, and further posts to this thread will focus on the projects at Yidby, Kooline and Mt Magnet. From the 2 projects here alone, we see that Surefire is sitting on 10s of billions of dollars worth of Vanadium, Gold and Iron, plus extra.
Projects:
Victory Bore/Unaly Hill -> Vanadium, Iron Ore, Titanium, Alumina
151mt @ 0.44% V2O5 (Vanadium Oxide) = 664,400 tonnes of contained V2O5 (Victory Bore)
86.2mt @ 0.42% V2O5 (Vanadium Oxide) = 362,040 tonnes of contained V2O5 (Unaly Hill)
A 2017 report commissioned by SRN employed aeromagnetic modelling and historical drilling notes that there may be an additional undiscovered 150-200mt of magnetite and vanadiferous mineralisations present on the sites, with similar gradings as the proven resources. (†)
In total over a million tonnes. Grades may appear low but it can be beneficiated extremely well - gangue minerals are rejected at 99.5%, 99.0% and 99.3% for silica, alumina and calcium respectively (†).
Combination of Victory Bore and Unaly Hill make SRN a significant vanadium resource holder in Australia, with ‘considerable additional resource potential’ (†).
Beneficiation by magnetic separation and sodium salt roast and water leach achieved an average recovery rate of 89.2%. Ferro-Vanadium alloy can be produced as a result, which would increase the NPV of the project over just producing Vanadium Pentoxide.
Current Ferro-Vanadium price is ~$93.16AU/kg. (Δ)
Operating costs (post-mining) for the production of Ferro-Vanadium are estimated to be $19.16AU/kg ± 35%.(†)
Potential to increase the profitability (and therefore NPV) of Victory Bore project by capitalising on the titanium and iron by-products contained in the leach residue (assays indicate 6% Ti and 57% Fe). (†)
Based off a current Vanadium Pentoxide flake market price of $23.11AU/kg, we can see that the projects should be able to yield (664400+362040)*1000*0.892*23.11 = $21,159,157,332.
SRN could opt to produce Ferro-Vanadium (a steel alloy) instead of Vanadium Pentoxide, which would increase the NPV of the project. The current price for the alloy is ~$93.16AU/kg, (Δ) however the report notes that the operating costs for the production of Ferro-Vanadium is $19.16AU/kg ± 35%. So a conservative estimate of the cost per kg is 25.87, which gives a margin of $67.29. Plug that number into the calculation above and you get a yield from the project of 61,609,679,659. (†)
Vanadium is used to make redox flow batteries (VRFBs) - used for large scale stationary energy storage (as opposed to mobile lithium ion batteries).
Right now, 90% of vanadium goes into steel alloys, 9% goes into aerospace alloys and chemical catalysts. 1% currently goes into VRFBs. (◊)
Market participants estimate around 9.25t of vanadium pentoxide is used in each MWh of vanadium storage battery. China is expected to install around 30-60GWh of new energy storage capacity by 2030, corresponding to 28,000-56,000 t/yr of extra demand for vanadium pentoxide during 2021-2030. (◊)
“an additional Exploration Target of 150–200 Mt of magnetite-bearing iron ore may be present with grades ranging from, 0.4% –0.7% V2O5 22% – 40% Fe, 6% – 8% TiO2” (†)
Unaly Hill -> Initial Leach recoveries of at least 50% Al2O3 (Aluminium Oxide). (§)
Perenjori -> Iron Ore, Gold
Underexplored, prospective Gold project at Feral E70/5311 tenement:
From Limited Drilling - Historical Results includes:
- 28m @0.72g/t Au from 8m
- 8m@ 1.18 g/t Au
- 4m @ 2.31 g/t Au
- 1m @ 11.60g/t
o Channel Sampling - Wide Mineralisation
- 33m @ 0.21 g/t Au
- 30m @ 0.22 g/t Au
o Rock Chip Sampling - Anomalous samples over a 6 km strike length
- Up to 4.5g/t Au and 8.05 g/t Au (¶)
Existing resource of 192mt @ 36.6% Fe (Iron), ability to produce 67.5-70% Fe Magnetite concentrate at 86% recovery yield. (high quality, low impurities). (‡)
Aeromagnetic imagery indicates resources could be upgraded to 500mt+ (‡)
Project NPV ranges from 4.6b to 16b (50843714)
NPV estimates conservative, based on Fe price of $120 AUS per tonne. Current price is ~$217 AUS per tonne.
Potential use of HIsmelt technology to produce pig iron, which is more valuable than normal Fe (~$685 AUS). Would increase NPV of the project
Coarse Grind, high quality. Every 2% increase in recoverability yields almost doubles NPV.
Site is near existing road, rail and port infrastructure. (‡)
Feasibility study is commencing. (‡)
SRN acquired the rights to this tenement from a now defunct company Quest Minerals. They initially ran into unrelated legal issues with 2 malaysian companies over partly paid shares, and the company was unable to get their money. The company was suspended from the ASX in 2013, and went into administration in 2014 after not being able to be relisted, and they lost their right to earn an interest in the tenements. SRN acquired the rights after the current CEO Vladimir Nikolaenko, who was a shadow director of Quest Minerals, launched proceedings against Quest Minerals in the WA Supreme Court when they tried to get relisted on the ASX in 2016. (50690308)Sources:
(20min delay)