- Neometals has recovered high-grade titanium and vanadium chemicals from its WA project
- The material can be used as a feedstock for producing products like certain batteries, pigments, and steel
- Neometals is testing the product as a feedstock for titanium metal powder
- A feedstock generally refers to a renewable source that can be converted into energy
- Neometals shares closed flat on the market today, worth 20 cents each
Neometals has updated the market with some strong results from its Barrambie Titanium and Vanadium project in Western Australia.
The company has hit a key milestone for its all-hydrometallurgical process flowsheet to recover titanium and vanadium chemicals from Barrambie.
The titanium material recovered (namely titanium hydrolysate) has a purity of more than 99 per cent from Barrambie. The product is used in producing titanium pigment which, according to Neometals, has a global market of roughly seven million tonnes per year.
For Neometals, the company wants to use titanium hydrolysate as a feedstock to make titanium metal powder. The company is currently testing the chemical for this purpose.
A feedstock generally refers to a renewable material that can be used directly as fuel or converted into another form of fuel.
Neometals Managing Director Chris Reed said once production kicks off, the company will be well-placed to provide a reliable supply of high-grade titanium feedstocks for a range of end products.
“We are very pleased with the optimisation test work results for Barrambie and are looking forward to producing evaluation samples from the pilot to provide to titanium feedstock buyers,” Chris said.
The end products Neometals will use this feedstock to support include titanium pigment, VRedox batteries, and steel.
China-based business partner Institute of Multipurpose Utilisation of Mineral Resources Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences (IMUMR) will be visiting the Neometals site in Perth in December 2019 to observe how the company’s plant runs.
A 50/50 production joint venture is still on the cards for the two companies depending on the success of a jointly-funded Class 3 Engineering Cost Study.
Neometals shares closed flat on the market today, worth 20 cents apiece in a $108.89 million market cap.