Bushveld Minerals Ltd. (LSE:BMN) released a prefeasibility study( PFS) for the South Africa-based Mokopane vanadium project. The company holds a 64-percent stake in Mokopane.
Highlights from the PFS include:

• Massive resource: Ore reserve of 28.56 million tonnes delineated from total resource of 298Mt –
• Long-term mine life: 30-year life-of-mine (from less than 10% of the total project resource of 298Mt)
• Project risk minimised: The proven and established salt roast processing method lowers project risks
• High-quality product: The PFS suggests a 1.0 Mtpa run-of-mine operation producing on average 9.525 tpa of vanadium pentoxide flakes at 99.5 weighted percent purity
• Low cost product: Over the life-of-mine the average combined total cost is estimated at US$3.28/lb V2O5, indicating one of the lowest-cost vanadium producers globally
• Robust project economics: Pay-back period of four years with a pre-tax NPV of US$418m (based on a 9% base case discount rate) and an IRR of 24.8% (pre-tax) using a conservative long-term US$:ZAR12.75 exchange rate and a real vanadium price of US$7.50/lb V2O5 (US$16.53/kg V2O5)

Chief Executive Fortune Mojapelo commented:

The results of the PFS confirm the emergence of Mokopane Vanadium as a market-leading vanadium project. Mokopane compares more than favourably with other leading vanadium deposits in the world, and this study defines its importance as a major asset, with strategic significance to the future market for vanadium.
For us, a notable take-away from this study points to its low-cash costs of production and significant market share for the Mokopane project – with run-of mine production contributing ~6% of global annualised vanadium output and ~50 % of South African output, thereby totally repositioning Bushveld in the vanadium market space.

Click here to read the full Bushveld Minerals Ltd. (LSE:BMN) press release.