Geology and Resources
The Project minesite lies within the Gabanintha and Porlell Archaean greenstone sequence orientated approximately northwest-southeast, adjacent to the Meekatharra greenstone belt in the Murchison Province.

The overall geology of the Gabanintha formation is a layered sequence of granitoids, ultramafics, gabbros and dolerites/amphibolites, felsic tuffs, basalts and banded iron and cherts. The sequence above is from stratigraphic low to high (east to west respectively).

The deposit is comparable to the Windimurra vanadium deposit and the Barrambie vanadium titanium deposit located 140 km south and 80 km southeast of Gabanintha respectively. The mineral deposit consists of a basal massive high-grade vanadium bearing magnetite zone (10 to 15 m in drilled thickness), overlain by up to five magnetite banded gabbro units between 5 and 30 m thick separated by thin low-grade mineralisation (<0.3% V2O5) waste zones. The sequence is overlain in places by a lateritic domain, a transported domain (occasionally mineralised) and a thin barren surface cover domain.

The north-northwest striking deposit is affected by a number of regional scale faults which offset the entire deposit, breaking the deposit into a series of kilometre scale blocks. The larger blocks show relatively little signs of internal deformation, with strong consistency in the layering being visible in drilling and over long distances between drillholes.

The surface expression of the high-grade massive magnetite/martite mineralisation at the Project’s vanadium deposit outcrops for almost 14 km in the Company held lease area. Detailed mapping and mineralogical studies have been completed by Company personnel and contracted specialists between 2000 and 2020, as well as eight separate drilling programs to test the mineralisation and continuity of the mineralised zones. These datasets and the relatively closely spaced drilling have led to a clear understanding of the host layered mafic intrusion and associated mineralisation controls.

The mineralisation is hosted within altered gabbros and is easy to visually identify by the magnetite/martite content. The main massive magnetite high-grade unit shows consistent thickness and grade along strike and down dip and has a clearly defined sharp boundary. The lower grade disseminated magnetite bands also show good continuity, but the boundaries are occasionally less easy to identify visually as they are more diffuse over a metre or so.

The mineralised zones are modelled using a combination of geological, geochemical and grade parameters, focused on continuity of zones between drill holes on section and between sections. This model also utilises near-surface alluvial/palaeochannel boundaries interpreted from geophysical modelling, diamond core logging and drill hole geochemistry, particularly potassium and silica, for delineation of shallow transported alluvial material that is sheetwash from granitic rocks to the east. Fault locations are interpreted from mapping data and detailed geophysical survey data, to define the fault blocks within which the mineralised horizons were modelled. In areas of sufficient drilling (i.e. junction of fault blocks 15 and 20; 20 and 30; 40 and 50) drill information refines the location and orientation of the modelled regional faults.

A cut-off of 0.7% V2O5 was used to define the high-grade basal massive magnetite zone that is a massive magnetite cumulate rock with minor interstitial or included chlorite-talc aggregates that are likely to be metamorphic alteration products of primary olivine crystals. The massive magnetite high-grade zone has corresponding Fe and Ti highs and Si and Al lows relative to the rest of the gabbro. There is an increase of Na and K below the base of the high-grade domain where the rock is footwall gabbro, and a Ti low above the unit, signifying the start of the W 21 domain.

The low-grade domains are sub-parallel to the high-grade domain and vary in mineralisation style from sub-metre massive magnetite bands intercalated with gabbro bands, to disseminated magnetite mineralisation that is pervasive throughout the rock. Overlying the bedrock geology are a sequence of sub-horizontal waste and low-grade alluvial/laterite domains. The top of bedrock surface is defined using lithological boundaries in logging.

Mining at the Project will be from an open pit that extends for 7,150 m along strike, consisting of a large pit in the north with a length of approximately 3,000 m, and then two smaller pits to the south of approximately 1,300 m in length. The mining sequence is primarily driven by the requirement to maintain a consistent blend of weathered and fresh ore types to the processing plant. As a consequence, mining commences in the southern pits due to fresh ore being closer to surface which allows the required blend to be attained sooner. Each southern pit is divided into a low strip starter stage and a second pushback stage to further expedite the early access to fresh ore. The northern pit is divided in a total of six stages, to balance strip ratio and access ore quickly. An inhouse calculated weathering ratio based on magnetic properties has been established to control the schedule, delivering the designed blend of low recovery, medium recovery and high recovery ore to the processing plant.

Ore will be primarily hauled to the run-of-mine (ROM) pad, with a proportion of plant feed being placed on long-term stockpiles for feed to the plant later in the mine life. The long-term stockpiles are predominantly weathered (i.e. low recovery) ore and Inferred Resources. Mine waste rock will be hauled to several storage facilities to the northwest and southeast of the open pit area. The subgrade ore, including the banded and disseminated ore zones, are classified as waste for the purposes of this PFS. However, it is also assumed this material will be placed in demarcated areas of the waste rock storage facilities so that it can be identified and recovered in the future should it become economic to do so.

Approximately 2.6Mt of material is mined in the quarter before plant production commences, primarily to provide construction material for the ROM Pad, haul roads and the first lift of the Tailings Storage Facility (TSF). The rate of mining averages approximately 11.5Mtpa for the first 8 years of the Project. Through Year 9 to Year 14 it increases to a peak of approximately 20.2Mtpa, before reducing to an average of 15.7Mtpa through to Year 19. From this point it steadily reduces to the final year of mining (Year 23). This is followed by approximately 2 years of processing from stockpiled material. Two excavators working on double shift will be utilised for the duration of the mine life, to ensure sufficient material blending can be maintained from the working faces.

Most of the material to be mined will require blasting for the life of the mine. A small amount of the oxide material (20%) is assumed to not require blasting.

The Life of Mine (LOM) production schedule was created in quarterly periods to year 5 and annually to the end of LOM. Mining occurs over 23 years with years 24 and 25 feeding long-term stockpiles (SP). Material movement increases from year 10 as the mining focus shifts towards the higher strip ratio northern pits. Low recovery ore and Inferred material is stockpiled adjacent to the ROM pad and rehandled to the plant as required. Inferred material is mined over the entire mine life, but is only fed to the plant from year 12.

Low grade resources are currently accounted as stockpiled material and will be preserved within discrete parts of the waste stockpiles. This comprises material in the disseminated and transported zones of the orebody within the designed pits that are either:
- between 0.4% – 0.7% V2O5 within Zones 10 and 2 or:
- above 0.4% V2O5 in all other mineralised zones Mine waste is dumped to waste rock dumps (WRD) to the east and north-west of the pits. The northwest WRD is adjacent to the tailings storage facility (TSF). As such, waste trucked here will provide construction material for the TSF and will become an integrated landform with this facility at mine closure.

The feed rate to the mill is variable as it depends on the overall mass yield of the blend. The output is constrained to 900,000 tonnes of concentrate. Input of ore is greater when lower and medium recovery ore is mined, and less when higher recovery material is mined. As part of the scheduling process, mass yield changes were limited to ± 5%, with this target being met over the mine life, except for year 22 and 25.

A crushing, milling and beneficiation (CMB) plant will be located at the minesite.

The metallurgical processes applied for the PFS Update include:

• Beneficiation circuit - crushing, grinding, magnetic separation and reverse flotation to generate a 1.39% V2O5 concentrate
• Refining circuit - pelletisation, roasting, grinding, water leaching, desilication, ammonium metavanadate (AMV) precipitation, deammoniation and flaking to produce a >98.5% V2O5 vanadium product and a 54-55% iron co product (leached calcine).

The metallurgical processes proposed are well-tested technologies and considered appropriate for the styles of mineralisation. The approach of pelletising the concentrate prior to roasting is not typical but has precedent in the vanadium hard rock industry. The grate kiln technology proposed is common in the iron ore pellet industry and has been validated at pilot scale.

Extensive bench and pilot scale metallurgical testwork have been carried out under the direction of Wood Mining and Metals and includes:

• Co ........