27th Apr 2018 12:38
LONDON (Alliance News) - Resources firm Bushveld Minerals Ltd on Friday reported a strong increase in vanadium production in the first quarter of 2018 after the first phase of an expansion project.
Bushveld mainly focuses on vanadium, with three assets in South Africa: Vametco in North-West province, Mokopane in Limpopo province, and Brits, which is adjacent to Vametco.
Its other operations are vanadium-based battery business Bushveld Energy and Lemur Resources, which focuses on thermal coal mining in Madagascar at the Imaloto project.
Production from Vametco in the first three months of 2018 was 731 metric tonnes of vanadium, up 36% on the previous quarter and 13% year-on-year.
Vametco produced the vanadium in the form of Nitrovan, which is a mixture of vanadium of nitrogen. Bushveld said this provides "more efficient" strengthening of steel than ferrovanadium.
Bushveld said the Metal Bulletin vanadium price for the quarter averaged USD61.80 per kilogram of vanadium, 58% higher than the prior three months.
The rise in production was due to the completion of the first stage of work in Bushveld's expansion project. Phase two is ongoing, the second of three stages, and the company expects it to increase capacity to an annualised run rate of 3,750 metric tonnes of vanadium.
The last stage will look to boost production to an annualised run rate of over 5,000 metric tonnes of vanadium by 2019.
At the Mokopane project authorities are still reviewing Bushveld's new order mining right application, and the company is progressing talks with local communities to see how to bring Mokopane into production in the most cost-efficient manner possible.
Bushveld has begun an exploration programme at its third vanadium mining project Brits, which is next door to Vametco, as it looks to establish a maiden mineral resource. It has completed eight diamond drill holes, and cores from these are currently being logged and assayed.
Chief Executive Fortune Mojapelo said: "We are pleased with the strong performance at Vametco over this period, which was underpinned by the completion of the first phase of the expansion project.
"We remain focussed on delivering on this important aspect of our strategy, which will allow us to take advantage of current higher prices, along with supporting our electrolyte and FeV production aspirations. The plans being implemented will undoubtedly further enhance our competitive position in this structurally challenged market whilst our integrated platform will allow us to develop downstream operations and product diversification."
Bushveld shares were up 2.4% on Friday at a price of 20.53 pence each.
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