Surefire unlocks milestone: Produces 4N HPA from Victory Bore

The Australian-based mineral-exploration company Surefire Resources has made its way onto the global stage for battery and LED markets by confirming 99.99 per cent pure alumina in test work utilising waste rock from its 100 per cent-owned Victory Bore vanadium mine, located roughly 400 kilometres east of the Western Australian port of Geraldton.

The business announced that it has manufactured the critical high-purity alumina (HPA) standard known as "4N" - alluding to the four nines in the purity % measurement. Surefire's relevance stems from the company's now-proven ability to utilise waste from Victory Bore to manufacture 4N HPA. Others have traditionally depended on pricey high alumina-content metals to improve feedstock grades and, as a result, final product purity.

Currently, 99.992% purity has been achieved in the process, with further optimisation expected to enhance these promising initial results and, in turn, add value to the vanadium project. Surefire hired mineral science firm Lava Blue to conduct the HPA analysis, which included six samples of reverse-circulation (RC) cuttings from Victory Bore and a unique technique. Five samples had more than 23 per cent aluminium oxide, while one contained 12.3 per cent.

"This successful test work result adds significant value to the Company's Victory Bore deposit. HPA from such a host rock raises important possibilities for the company's future development strategy. We will now consider the feasibility of HPA production in the development plans for the Victory Bore Vanadium Project," said Surefire Resources managing director Paul Burton.

The samples were subjected to quantitative x-ray fluorescence mineralogy, which resulted in three selections being chosen for testing, with aluminium oxide contents of 24.68, 23.86, and 24.07 per cent, respectively. Management will use magnetic beneficiation throughout its mining operation to separate the aluminium-bearing waste from vanadium-rich magnetite, eliminating the need for any difficult or expensive metallurgical work and contributing to its business case for HPA production.

HPA is a highly specialist product with total impurities of fewer than 100 parts per million. It has a tiny market but fetches a premium price ranging from $30,000 to $45,000 per tonne. Victory Bore was originally a vanadium project, but it now looks to provide Surefire with the potential to shift into the lucrative HPA market, valued at approximately $1.49 billion last year and expected to increase to a staggering $7.14 billion by 2026.

Although HPA has taken centre stage at Victory Bore, the company's vanadium resource will be addressed. It has a total combined inferred mineral resource of 235 tonnes grading at around 0.4 per cent vanadium oxide, including 87 million tonnes in the measured and indicated categories at comparable grades.

Surefire is conducting a feasibility assessment for its Victory Bore vanadium project and will now explore including a commercialisation option for HPA in the results. The business claims it will further its HPA objective while manufacturing high-purity vanadium for the burgeoning redox flow battery industry and investigating new vanadium industries. With the highest result from Surefire's most recent test results coming in at 99.992 per cent pure alumina, the business will now strive for 5N HPA via additional test optimisation. The 99.999 per cent pure alumina sells for anything from $45,000 to $74,000 per tonne.