Mineral Resources & Ore Reserve

Widespread exploration has been conducted in the Richmond-Julia Creek area over the last 30 years, with a significant proportion focused on the search for oil and process testwork of the unoxidised kerogen-rich oil shale.

In October 1998, a review of the data has recognised a project targeting oxide vanadium mineralisation (without regard to oil in the fresh rock) could be viable.  An active 18-month work program followed which involved drilling, geochemical sampling and assaying, resource estimation, metallurgical sampling, extensive metallurgical testwork, process flowsheet design and development.

RVT undertook a small regional drilling program in 2018 and in late 2019, completed a large infill drilling program on the Lilyvale deposit comprising 333 aircore holes for 7,817m. The aim of the drilling was to infill previous drilling to enable an Updated Mineral Resource estimate at an improved JORC Category from Inferred to Indicated.

With a Mineral Resource of 1.8Bt @ 0.36% for 6.7Mt V₂O₅ (JORC 2012 compliant), the Richmond Vanadium Project hosts the largest non-titanomagnetite vanadium deposit of its kind (soft marine sediments) making it a world class vanadium resource.

Over 76% of the Lilyvale Mineral Resource has been upgraded to the Indicated Category and the Lilyvale Deposit has a maiden open pit Ore Reserve of 459.2Mt @ 0.49% V₂O₅ using a 0.30% V₂O₅ lower grade cut-off for 2.25 Mt of contained V₂O₅ product.