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As work to re-open Australia's dedicated vanadium mine at Windimurra moves into the construction phase, Roderick Smith, managing director of the mine's majority owner, briefly reviews progress and outlines the shape of world vanadium production and demand.
When Western Australia's Windimurra vanadium mine was closed by Xstrata in mid-2004, then holders of a substantial controlling stake in the project, vanadium prices were low, flaws had been found in the original plant design, and disagreements with the mine's other owners remained unresolved.
Just under 15 months later, in August 2005, Xstrata completed the sale of its share in the mine to its current owner - and former project partner - Precious Metals Australia Limited. After a thorough review of the project and the steps needed to revive it, PMA is well on the way to reopening the open-pit mine, situated 650 km north-east of Perth, and to restarting production in January next year.
At the time of writing, a Theiss Promet joint venture is working on the engineering design of the ore treatment plant's crushing-to-beneficiation section, Proteus Engineers were awarded the front-end design and engineering for the magnetite-to-final-product section, while South Africa's Drytech International were awarded a contract to design and supply the equipment for ferro-vanadium production - Windimurra's final product. Production capacity is expected to reach 6,200 tpy of ferro-vanadium, or about 8% of world demand.
Orders have also been placed for longlead-time equipment, including high-pressure grinding rolls and a gas-turbine power station. The old refractory lining of the 126-metre long rotary kiln has been removed and its replacement put out to tender. The Windimurra village has been reactivated with new dwellings for 140 permanent staff plus accommodation under construction for an additional 160 construction workers.
Hong Kong's Noble Group acquired a 10% stake in the project for A$13.5m last September. PMA has a sales and marketing agreement with the group for all of the mine's output, under which the commodity trader will pay the higher of the current market price for ferrovanadium or the cash cost of production for the first seven years. Completion...