Vanadium mineralisation occurs in vanadium-bearing titaniferous magnetite-rich layers that occur within the Upper Zone of the Rustenburg Layered Suite of the Bushveld Complex. The magnetiterich layers are part of the layered sequence and are concordant, continuous along strike and down-dip, although thickness variability occurs. The Bushveld Complex intruded Pretoria Group meta-sedimentary rocks of the Transvaal Supergroup approximately 2,060 million years ago. The layered sequence of mafic rocks, known as the Rustenburg Layered Suite, comprises five distinct zones. • the Marginal Zone, • the Lower Zone, • the Critical Zone, • the Main Zone, and • the Upper Zone. Project Geology Both the Main Zone (Pyramid Gabbronorites) and the Upper Zone (Bierkraal Magnetite Gabbros) occur on the Vametco Mining Right Area (MRA). Underlying the northern regions of the Vametco MRA are the Bierkraal Magnetite Gabbros, whilst the southern part of the Vametco MRA is underlain by Pyramid Gabbro-Norites. The mafic layers are east-west striking and north dipping, with an average dip of 19°. The lithologies associated with the Main Zone (Pyramid GabbroNorite) are gabbro-norite, and locally anorthosite and pyroxenite bands. The lithologies in the Upper Zone (Bierkraal Magnetite Gabbro), that occurs on the northern part of the Property, include magnetite–bearing gabbro, olivine-diorite and some anorthosite and magnetite layers. The well-developed magnetite seams in the lower portion of the Uppe ........

The current mining cycle for the Project is conventional drill, blast, load and haul with the opportunity of free-dig in some areas of weathered material.

Prior to mining in a particular area, all vegetation cover and useable soil is removed and placed on a separate soil stockpile. Waste rock and ore are blasted at irregular intervals and removed to waste rock dumps or the primary crusher, respectively. Material is loaded onto 20- or 40-tonne haul trucks using hydraulic shovels and front-end loaders. The mining is not a constraint and there is potential to increase the ore production in excess of 2.6 Mtpa (if required) based on the strike length, dip and orientation of the orebody. Due to the stratified nature of the ore deposit, Bushveld Vametco uses a combination of strip mining and open pit mining.

The open pit mining approach can be typified as bench mining where faces are opened up in one area through overburden and waste stripping. The exposed ore is mined and transported to the plant by a fleet of trucks and shovels. A pit optimisation study was done to generate different pit shells in order to identify the pit shell which should render the optimal value based on practical technical constraints over the Life of Mine (“LOM”).

Vametco uses a series of contractors to perform the mining. There are currently four contractors operating at Vametco.

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Vametco’s processing plant receives ore from the co-located Vametco mine. Vametco employs the standard salt roast and leach process to produce a steel-alloying vanadium carbon nitride product called Nitrovan.

The processing plant has historically performed satisfactorily with a recent annual production history of around 2,600 mtV p.a. NitrovanTM. A study as to the current indicated sectional maximum throughputs indicates that some of the sections could become limiting at an annual tonnage throughput of 1.5 Mtpa for a production of around 3,400 mtV p.a. NitrovanTM.

Measures to increase the hourly throughput, improve thermal efficiencies and limit downtime in the kiln section are currently being considered.

Process Summary
The mills are operated in closed circuit with cyclones with magnetic separators on the cyclone
overflow streams.

The secondary mill is operated in closed circuit with a cyclone to produce a grind of 80 % < 106 µm ........