Australian junior Aura Energy says a positive scoping study on a project focused on less than 3% of the polymetallic resource outlined at Haggan in central Sweden “will support engagement with potential strategic partners in the project”.
Vanadium is the main economic driver at Haggan, which also has significant volumes of potassium, nickel, zinc, molybdenum and uranium in a two billion tonne mineral resource. The latter cannot currently be exploited under Swedish law.
Aura’s scoping study outlines initial capital expenditure of US$592 million and a circa-5.9 million tonnes per annum base-case operation producing 10,400tpa of high-quality vanadium flake, about 217,000tpa sulphate of sulphate-of-potash and 3000tpa of mixed sulphide product. The study uses a vanadium pentoxide pricing range of US$7-13/lb.
Toronto-based Red Cloud Securities said the study underpinned Aura’s application for a 25-year exploration permit and “provides a strong economic profile for reengagement with potential strategic partners”.
“This is one of the largest deposits in the EU, primarily driven by the 48% V2O5 and 30% K2O in revenue and backstopped by an enormous pending uranium resource of 800Mlb U3O8, representing 14% of potential revenue.
“While this is a potentially world-class asset, it is Aura’s secondary project and unlikely that Aura can develop it alone.
“While Aura was punished by the market when the Sweden uranium ban issues circulated earlier this year, the company has since regained almost all of its lost market value, up 30% over the past month as uranium prices have started to increase.
“The recent share price performance likely reflects growing market interest in its expanding 58.9Mlb Tiris uranium project in Mauritania.”
Red Cloud suggested Aura’s “low-capex” Haggan scoping-level project was the right size for its cA$170 million market capitalisation and “demonstrates considerable resource and production expansion potential”.
