King River Resources Limited announced that Vanadium/Titanium deposit located in the Kimberley of Western Australia, which is Australia's largest vanadium in magnetite deposit. Murdoch University's Hydrometallurgy Research Group is working to develop a new process flow sheet to produce high purity Vanadium Pentoxide (V2O5), Vanadium Electrolyte (VE), Titanium Dioxide (TiO2) and metallic iron. These products are used in the manufacture
of electrolyte for vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFB), master alloys (Al-Ti-V materials), and titanium oxide pigments. Murdoch University has been investigating two new processing opportunities: an oxidative salt roast process to recover vanadium trialling reductive roast approaches (including hydrogen) to recover other metals. 50 kg of high grade vanadium-titanium magnetite (VTM) concentrate produced by magnetic separation methods from drill samples from the Central Vanadium deposit at Speewah (Attachment 1) has been provided for this testwork. Sample 1 used in the new test work contains 2.44% V2O5 (i.e., 2.01% V2O3). The first batch salt roast-water leach results report up to 92% vanadium (V) extraction. The first batch of five salt roast tests on the VTM concentrate used soda ash (sodium carbonate) as the salt reagent, dosing at 50-150 kg/t and heating at 1000-1200°C for a period of two hours in a tube furnace Subsamples of the roasted materials were subsequently subjected to leaching in water for 1 hour at room temperature. Samples of the washed leach residues and the roasted materials have been assayed to determine the extent of extraction of vanadium and dissolution of other elements. At a sodium carbonate dose of 100 kg/t, the extraction of vanadium during leaching increases with an increase in roast temperature, from 78% at 1000°C to 90% at 1100°C and 92% at 1200°C. Elemental accountabilities for vanadium in these tests were around 97%. At half the salt dose of ~50 kg/t very good V extractions of 81% were still obtained at 1100°C. Further optimisation work should increase these extractions and lower the reagent consumption. The initial oxidative roast-water leach results will be used to select the optimal reagent suite, dosages and temperature conditions to be tested in subsequent optimisation salt-roast-water leach testwork. The solutions from these salt roast-water leach tests, which contain the vanadium, will undergo a series of staged tests to produce vanadium pentoxide (V2O5), including: 1. desilication to reduce the silica in solution and final product. 2. reaction with ammonium sulphate to precipitate ammonium-metavanadate (AMV). 3. calcination of the AMV to produce V2O5. The Australian Federal Government has added Vanadium to Australia's critical minerals list and is taking action to grow Australia into a critical minerals powerhouse, capitalising on the strength of world- leading resources sector, expertise in processing and highly skilled workforce. $200 million has been committed to the Critical Minerals Accelerator Initiative to support strategically significant projects at challenging points in their development. This funding will accelerate projects to market and drive investment. KRR sees the addition of Vanadium to the Critical Minerals list as a very supportive opportunity to access an increase level of funding opportunities and grant levels than were previously available to the industry. KRR involvement in the Future Batteries Industry Cooperative Research Centre (FBICRC) Project on the Development of Vanadium Electrolytes is in the final contracting phase. This project is one of several research initiatives by the FBICRC designed to assist in enabling the growth of battery industries to power Australia's future.