Mount Ridley Mines Recovers 96% Vanadium from Titanomagnetite Sample Using

In briefAt-a-glance3 takeaways

• 01Selectro test achieved 96% vanadium recovery.
• 02Two-stage leaching lifted titanium recovery more than fivefold.
• 03MRD sees licensing potential beyond Grass Patch.

Mount Ridley Mines (ASX: MRD) has recovered grades of 96% vanadium, 49% titanium, and 78% iron from a titanomagnetite sample during a second third-party feed test of its patent-pending Selectro chemical leaching process.

The test was designed to determine whether Selectro could recover vanadium and titanium together from the feed, rather than vanadium in isolation as per conventional processing routes.

It was run as a two-stage leach campaign, whereby Selectro chemistry can be tuned to preferentially recover different metals depending on the feed and metals targeted.

In the first stage, vanadium and iron were taken into solution preferentially over titanium, leaving a titanium-rich residue with the titanium dioxide grade increasing from 14.2% in the head sample to 21.5% in the first stage residue.

The titanium-rich residue then underwent a second Selectro leach stage using fresh solution where the titanium leached preferentially over iron, lifting overall titanium recovery more than five-fold and recovering additional vanadium and iron.

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Selectro Applications

Selective leaching has been a consistent feature of Selectro across Mount Ridley’s test work, with the reagent targeting scandium and rare earths in clays from the company’s Grass Patch project in Western Australia as well as gallium, aluminium, and iron in bauxite.

Managing director Allister Caird said results from the latest third-party feed test were further evidence that Selectro has applications well beyond Grass Patch.

“Titanomagnetite is the world’s primary source of vanadium, but has historically been processed for vanadium alone, so to recover 96% of the vanadium from this sample while bringing titanium and iron into solution shows Selectro has the potential to unlock more value from this feed, which could improve the economics of titanomagnetite projects,” he explained.

“Just as encouraging is the way Selectro worked through the sample, taking vanadium and iron first and titanium second, with titanium recovery lifting more than five-fold in the second stage, which essentially acts as a proxy for separation.”

“Titanium also gives us another link back to Grass Patch, with titanium-scandium alloys among the premium next generation materials being assessed in our CSIRO program [to advance downstream processing and commercialisation research for critical minerals].”

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Third-Party Licensing

Mount Ridley aims to apply Selectro at Grass Patch while licencing the technology to third-party project owners, with titanomagnetite adding vanadium and titanium to the scandium, rare earth, gallium and aluminium applications already demonstrated.

The company believes there is scope to increase titanium recovery further through refinement of the second stage conditions, and is currently focused on completing a larger-scale Selectro bauxite test to demonstrate the separation and purification stages with the aim of proving up a full mine-to-metal pathway for bauxite feed.

It is also engaging with engineering groups and industry partners, including vanadium and titanium producers, to advance the Selectro process and the design of a Selectro demonstration plant in Perth.

With the first round of third-party feed testing nearing completion, Mr Caird said Mount Ridley would consider additional third-party feeds in the new year on a case-by-case basis, dependent on the counter-party and commercial value proposition.

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Imelda Cotton

JournalistView all articles