King River hits the mark with vanadium metallurgy
Date:Jul 25, 2018
ASX listed King River Copper has managed to produce the coveted vanadium grade of 99.51%, just falling over the 99.5% line into one of the more revered and lucrative vanadium product categories.
The company produced the high purity, battery grade powder assaying 99.51% vanadium pentoxide during hydrometallurgical test work completed for Speewah which is in the east Kimberley region of W.A.
The work is being completed by TSW Analytical to investigate a new direct leaching-precipitation method to produce premium vanadium, titanium and iron products from the company’s vanadium-rich titanomagnetite ores from the Central vanadium deposit at Speewah.
The complex test work process initially used coarse-sized, very high-grade vanadium magnetic concentrates leached in concentrated acid for over 4 hours.
The titanium dioxide component is then removed from the solution by precipitation.
The residual solution contained a crude iron-vanadium compound that retained almost 96% of the original vanadium metal for further test work.
The remaining vanadium was then separated from the iron using the commercial “AMV” process and after several iterations of purification, produced a 99.51% yellow vanadium pentoxide powder with extremely low impurities.
The work is part of a larger Vanadium concept study being undertaken by TSW for King River, into the production of the very high purity vanadium pentoxide powders and standard grade vanadium pentoxide flake.
Additionally, TSW is investigating the production of high purity titanium dioxide pigment products, high-grade hematitic iron ores and vanadium electrolyte for battery products.
The test work process being trialled is different to conventional salt roast pyrometallurgical methods or direct solvent extraction of metallic products from solutions.
Results of TSW’s test work will be fed into an ongoing Scoping Study that is underway for King River’s Speewah deposit.
