Confidence is increasing in Hardey’s Queensland vanadium projects
Date: Aug 22, 2018
There is a growing confidence in the prospects of four vanadium projects Hardey Resources is acquiring in Queensland.
Today the explorer released an update on due diligence for the four sites — and told investors it now had “increased confidence to geologically model, estimate and report under the JORC (2012) Code”.
JORC compliance refers to the mining industry’s official code for reporting exploration results, mineral resources and ore reserves, managed by the Australasian Joint Ore Reserves Committee.
Hardey’s geologists now believe there as many as 383 drill-holes targeting a formation under the site along a 150km strike running through four prospects — known as Spike, Cera, Petrie and Sharptooth.
That’s up from 170 reported earlier this month.
After a thorough review of the historic holes – drilled back in 2010 — the team believes it could uncover higher vanadium assay (or test results) using larger diameter drilling.
The four projects in Queensland are near Intermin Resources’ (ASX: IRC) globally significant Richmond project, which hosts an inferred resource of about 2.6 billion tonnes at 0.32 per cent vanadium pentoxide (V2O5).
Hardey has been evaluating nearby exploration undertaken by Intermin as well as Liontown Resources (ASX: LTR). Liontown’s maiden inferred resource is 83.7 million tonnes at 0.3 per cent vanadium.
“Overall, with high-grade V2O5 [vanadium pentoxide] confirmed near surface … there is potentially a solid case that open pit mining methods can be employed,” said Hardey Resources executive chairman Terence Clee.
“The geology team have done a superb job uncovering incremental data points which enhances the prospect of generating a JORC-compliant resource across the four Queensland projects and de-risks them further.
“Moving forward, the board is increasingly optimistic that Hardey Resources can develop future vanadium supply chains from Australia and Argentina judging by the encouraging results already evidenced.”
