Westwater Resources, an energy materials development company, has reported discovery of significant levels of vanadium concentrations at several locales within the graphitic schists at its Coosa Graphite Project in Coosa County, Alabama.
Image: Vanadium metal pieces. Photo courtesy of W. Oelen/Wikimedia Commons.
Westwater Resources president and CEO Christopher Jones said: “We are delighted to confirm the discovery of vanadium on our existing mineral leases in Alabama. The prospect of adding a vanadium credit to our already robust economics at the Coosa Graphite Project appreciably increases the value of our holdings. The Westwater team is designing an exploration program to more fully define the extent of the vanadium mineralization.”
Jones said: “Westwater holds two large graphite development projects that now also may contain significant levels of vanadium. Together with our lithium properties and uranium holdings in the American West, and further to the development to our Alabama-based graphite business, the potential income we can generate from vanadium could translate to a higher valuation for WWR in the future.”
Recent assay results for numerous samples collected from the graphitic schists in areas adjacent to the known graphite resource area of the Coosa Project have shown concentrations values of up to 0.4% V2O5 (which is equal to 8 pounds of V2O5 per short ton), as well as values ranging up to 0.26% V2O5 in the graphite deposit area itself.
Westwater believes that these concentrations are significant and warrant integrated evaluation of graphite-vanadium resources of the Coosa Graphite Project. Vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) is the most common form traded and currently sells for $33.10/lb. (98% V2O5 Flake, China as reported by www.vanadiumprice.com on November 26, 2018). This current price represents a multi-year high, with a rise of over 300% in the last 12 months.
The occurrences of elevated concentrations of vanadium in the Alabama Graphite belt have been known since the 1940s, as documented by the United States Bureau of Mines (USBM) Report of Investigations 4366 (December 1948).
USBM documents anomalous vanadium results for samples from the now inactive Fixico graphite mine, located on one of the properties leased by Westwater and adjacent to the Coosa Graphite Project and from Westwater’s Bama Mine in Chilton County, Alabama and from the Dean Prospect, situated on properties controlled by Westwater.
Source: Company Press Release