Surefire Resources develops breakthrough vanadium extraction process
Surefire Resources (ASX:SRN) has developed a breakthrough process of extracting vanadium directly from magnetite concentrate at its Victory Bore vanadium project in WA.
After a 96-hour leach directly from magnetite concentrate, a vanadium extraction of 91% was achieved. Unexpectedly, an 88% titanium extraction was also recovered.
The leach process was applied to pre-treated concentrate, allowing the leach process to effectively scavenge vanadium. This pre-leach treatment is Surefire’s intellectual property.
In May 2023, Surefire appointed METS Engineering to undertake an assessment of potential recovery of a high purity vanadium oxide in liquid form, from which a clean high purity vanadium electrolyte could be produced for use in Australasia’s emerging vanadium battery sector.
Following a detailed literature search and a review of existing extraction processes, a direct leaching test work program was designed and established by the METS team.
Four separate hydro-chemical tests were undertaken on pre-treated magnetite concentrate (PTMC).
The successful process is an adaption of several commercially scalable processes used within the mineral resource industry and involves leaching under certain conditions of the PTMC.
The total process is a combination of the proprietary PTMC, leachant and novel conditions. The process details are commercial in confidence and remain the intellectual property of Surefire and are subject to a provisional patent protection.
