Transcript
Ian Prentice: 2022 has been a really big year for Technology Metals.
The most pleasing aspects of the year I think would be the completion of our Integration Study in the middle of the year, which delivered a really significant reserve upgrade.
And then leading from there into the implementation phase and so we’ve got early works agreement with APA, FEED study with FL Smidth all leading through to this, as I say into this implementation phase for the project.
And I guess also in and around all of that, the delivery later in the year was a really significant resource upgrade.
And that’s that’s going to be really important in feeding into this implementation phase and the updated reserve coming in next year.
On the marketing side, we’ve had some really great outcomes with our partnership
with LE System, really building a strong relationship in the battery metals side into Japan particularly, but also later in the year, the Tata Steel MOU really, really a significant bridge
into the Indian market which we think is going to be fantastic growth space for vanadium.
And of course, really importantly for us is the building of the team.
So we’ve had over the course of this year, we’ve gone from a very, very small team
to quite a significant team now, really focused, really great culture, great values around
delivery of our project.
John Mcdougall: The exploration drilling that we did at Yarrabubba and Gabanintha
at the start of the year improved the Mineral Resource classification for areas that were poorly defined by previous drilling.
And this has led to a conversion of a lot of our Inferred Resources into an Indicated category and a lot of the Indicated Resources into a Measured category where we’ve collected extra density information.
The increase in Indicated and Measured Resources of both deposits have added
significant tonnage.
The conversion to Reserves will improve the economics of the project.
David English: The Murchison Technology Metals Project offers a number of advantages that helps the economics of the projects.
I have recent experience or past experience with vanadium projects and some of
the differentiators, you know, certainly contribute to making this a much more viable
and economic project.
The orebody is a very fresh orebody which significantly aids with the recovery of magnetite.
And then following that the recovery of the vanadium and the orebody, fresh orebody is very close to the surface, which reduces the amount of overburden and reduces the stripping ratio to access the orebody.
Elisha Civil: There is some great work being done by the team on integrating Yarrabubba and its ilmenite Reserve into the MTMP project that’s providing us with a lot of flexibility.
There’s inflationary pressure that we’re all facing here in Australia and overseas, but we’re really confident that the project economics are robust and the global demand for vanadium and a secure supply of vanadium will support a lot of flexibility in our funding scenarios.
We’re looking at working with our sovereign backed funds here in Australia in NAIF and EFA as well as the European Agency EKF, and also allowing our existing and new shareholders
to participate in that raise.
Jason Barnett: What’s got me excited about the VRFB sector is the recent developments in the US.
The Inflation Reduction Act has really spurred on a lot of VRFB projects.
But in Australia, I’m really looking forward to the Yadlamalka project in South Australia.
I’m hoping it’s going to be like a Tesla battery moment. It’s an 8MWh battery and because it’s funded by ARENA, all the data from the battery is going to be shared and it’s going to be really handy to have this data and show a lot of the utility groups what VRFB’s can do.
Jeniffer Pauza: What really excites me about where the project currently stands is the fact that it is a greenfield project.
So, you know, you’re starting everything from scratch.
And for me, that is really, really exciting with the prospect of developing something from the ground up.
The other thing that really excites me is being able to share the compelling story of vanadium and its use, not just in the traditional steel sector, but in the emerging battery
sector as we transition to a low carbon economy.
