Location: South Africa
Steelpoortdrift is VR8’s flagship mineral resources asset that would serve as feedstock for the V-Iron Plant. Steelpoortdrift is a very high-grade, long-life primary vanadium deposit in the renowned Bushveld Igneous Complex and forms the foundation of VR8’s co-production strategy.
The Steelpoortdrift project hosts a substantial vanadium and Iron deposit for generations to come, with a JORC Mineral Resource of 680 million tonnes at an average in-situ grade of 0.70% V2O5 (equivalent to 4.74 million tonnes of contained metal) and a Proved and Probable Ore Reserve of 77 million tonnes at an average in-situ grade of 0.72% V2O5 (equivalent to 0.55 million tonnes of contained metal).
Magnetite ore will be mined through open pit methods at a low strip ratio of 0.88:1 and upgraded through an onsite magnetic-separation concentrator to a high-grade VTM concentrate of greater than 2% V2O5 and +55% Fe, which makes Steelpoortdrift among the highest Vanadium concentrate grades of any VTM project globally and a pre-eminent Iron-magnetite project, enabling high recoveries, lower throughput dates and low operating costs.
The concentrate feeds the V-Iron Plant, where it is co-processed into vanadium-rich slag and pig iron. The concentrate is first pre-heated and partially pre-reduced in a fluidised-bed unit before being smelted in an open-bath DC electric furnace, where the iron oxides are reduced to a vanadium-bearing molten iron and the gangue minerals report to a discard slag. The molten iron is then transferred to an oxygen conversion step, in which the contained vanadium is selectively oxidised and recovered as a high-grade vanadium-rich slag, leaving a de-vanadised pig iron that is cast and sold as a premium steelmaking feedstock. Two saleable products are therefore recovered from a single process train, using the same proven co-production route operated for decades at Highveld Steel and New Zealand Steel.
The mine and concentrator are fully permitted (mining right, environmental authorisation, zoning and water use licence) and will benefit from established power, water, rail and road infrastructure as it is adjacent to several mining and processing operations in the Steelpoortvalley.
The multigenerational scale of the Steelpoortdrift Mineral Resource enables a derisked, phased expansion of production capacity, while supporting output volumes sufficient to supply Western markets and other global demand centres.
Steelpoortdrift
The Steelpoortdrift Vanadium Project sits in a well-established mining jurisdiction, with historical vanadium produced close by at Mapochs and Kennedy’s Vale (VanTech) and other existing platinum and chrome mined and processed nearby by major international companies such as Glencore, Anglo American and Samancor.
The region is served by critical infrastructure within close reach, including:
V-Iron Plant
The Steelpoortdrift Vanadium Project sits in a well-established mining jurisdiction, with historical vanadium produced close by at Mapochs and Kennedy’s Vale (VanTech) and other existing platinum and chrome mined and processed nearby by major international companies such as Glencore, Anglo American and Samancor.
The region is served by critical infrastructure within close reach, including:
The V-Iron Plant recovers vanadium alongside pig iron through reduction in a fluidised-bed pre-treatment, DC-Arc furnace smelting and oxygen conversion: essentially the same process that has produced more than 70% of the world’s vanadium. This methodology operated for over 50 years on a near-identical Bushveld orebody at Anglo American’s Highveld Steel and at New Zealand Steel. Several refineries, such as U.S. Vanadium in Arkansas, Treibacher in Austria and elsewhere have long utilised high-grade Vanadium slags, similar to those planned from the V-Iron Plant, as reliable feedstock for its operations. The Witbank Highveld Steel and Vanadium operations, first operated by Anglo American Corporation and later by Evraz, produced pig-iron as part of an integrated steelworks supplying finished steel products into the Southern African market.
VR8 plans to develop a market for its products and expect to supply markets that rely on a stable supply of consistent and high-grade raw material for further refining to final products (such as Steel and Vanadium products ready for end-users). As a first entry into the Vanadium market, VR8 concluded a non-binding term sheet with U.S. Vanadium for 100% of the V-Iron Plant’s vanadium slag. Subject to conclusion of a definitive agreement, this material will be supplied to USV’s Hot Springs facilities in Arkansas. VR8 is also in discussions with Southern African offtakers for pigiron, and is progressing the securing of a suitable site, engaging with renewable powersupply providers, and evaluating several logistical solutions for transporting its concentrate and finished products.