Bushveld Provides Update on South African Vanadium Project

Bushveld Minerals Ltd. (LSE:BMN) on Wednesday provided an operational update on its Bushveld vanadium project, located in South Africa, commenting that it has completed three boreholes in the AB Zone. Further, magnetic separation results from the Main Magentic Layer (MML) show “excellent” concentration grades.

The company provided updates on its Bushveld iron ore and Mokopane tin projects, also based in South Africa.

As quoted in the press release:

Drilling of the recently identified AB Zone commenced on the 29th of November 2013. The AB Zone comprises a unit containing disseminated magnetite approximately 100 m below the MML, and was identified in the BV-1 borehole, where it contains in-situ vanadium grades of 1.17 % V₂O₅ and concentrate grades of 2.38% V₂O₅ (see operations update 27 November 2013). Three boreholes (AB1, AB2 and AB4) have been completed thus far, with additional drilling underway. This drilling aims to delineate the extent of the AB Zone in the project area, and to define a maiden mineral resource on this zone. In the initial two boreholes AB1 and AB2, the AB Zone is poorly developed, with only minor magnetite present. However, borehole AB4 intersected over 20m of disseminated magnetite between approximately 80 m and 100 m. Logging and sampling of these boreholes is underway, and initial assay results for the AB Zone can be expected in March 2014. Following receipt of assay results, the Company expects to complete a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate on the AB Zone.

Fortune Mojapelo, Bushveld’s CEO, commented:

We are pleased with the progress made on the Bushveld Vanadium Project since launching that platform less than three months ago, and continue to target a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate for the AB Zone.

Simultaneously, the Vanadium Market Study recently commissioned, in combination with the excellent grades evidenced by our testwork on the MML deposit, will enable us to identify the optimum processing route. The existence of operational plants processing the MML layer on the Bushveld Complex provides useful precedents to choose from.

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