Investor Relations

Strong prices and demands for vanadium add value and interest for the Four Corners Project

 

The Four Corners Project may be the largest undeveloped vanadium (V) resource in the world.

 

Experts, analysts and institutions agree vanadium is the new-age miracle metal:

 

Robert Friedland, the billionaire mining legend states “the electrification of the world economy is inevitable…. there’s a revolution coming in Vanadium redox batteries. Larger deployment over the ensuing 5 years in China will result in vanadium flow batteries revolutionizing modern electricity grids.”

 

Anthony Milewski, Managing Director at Pala Investment Ltd. was quoted by Bloomberg “I don’t think anyone would dispute that it’s superior to lithium-ion in large-scale grid applications”

 

Vanadium prices increased 7-fold to $21.70 USD/lb from $3.00 USD/lb in 2016 and predictions are for higher prices:

 

Bank of Montreal, a top Canadian Investment Bank states, “We see significant vanadium price upside due to lower Chinese shipment impacted by more stringent environmental monitoring.  Better demand create further demand pressure.”

 

Mark Burton of Bloomberg states, “Vanadium is rocketing during a buying spree in China, and grid-scale batteries for renewables could drive further gains”.

 

The U.S. Geological Survey lists vanadium as one of 23 critical mineral resources of the United States noting that, “Vanadium is used primarily in the production of steel alloys; as a catalyst for the chemical industry; in the making of ceramics, glasses, and pigments; and in vanadium redox-flow batteries (VRBs) for large-scale storage of electricity.”  The Survey also notes there is not a primary vanadium mine currently in the USA.

 

The US Geological Survey reports “the Speewah Deposit in Western Australia as the world’s largest example of an undeveloped vanadium, titanium magnetite deposit”.  The owner Key River Copper reports the Speewah deposit contains an indicated resource of 1 billion tonnes at 0.33% vanadium and 2% titanium. 

 

By comparison the Four Corners Project may contain up to several billion tonnes of vanadium & titanium also hosted in magnetite rich, highly magnetic rocks, typical of these deposits best outlined by airborne magnetic surveys.  Two (2) separate magnetic surveys by independent global service companies Fugro and Geotech have outlined 3 separate strongly magnetic zones.  Ground and core drilling surveys confirm the strongly magnetic zones do contain vanadium and titanium.

 

The Keating Hill East (KHE) Zone is the only zone drill tested and the results together with surface trenching indicate this zone alone may contain up to a billion-tonne deposit (and possibly larger up to 2 billion-tonnes).  One of the other highly magnetic zones not yet drill tested is twice the size of the KHE Zone and therefore further suggesting a much larger resource.

 

Metallurgical testing completed on the KHE drill core by ALS Ammtec (World Class Bankable Metallurgy Laboratory) of western Australia confirms ore grade mineralization with a concentrate (by standard “Davis Tube” metallurgical testing) of 0.36% V, accompanied by 9.70% Ti.  (This high titanium grade is a further indication of the overall value of the Four Corners Project.)  This metallurgical testing was supervised by global consultant SRK Consulting of Lakewood, Colorado.

 

To give an indication of the value of the Keating Hill East Zone we use a very conservative tonnage estimate of 300,000,000 tonnes versus a higher 1 billon tonnes indicated to date, which with the metallurgical test grade of 0.36% V represents approximately 1 billion pounds of vanadium.  Based on the current price of $21.70/lb USD this represents an in-situ value of approximately $22 billion USD dollars, noting this zone alone may contain up to multi billion pounds. 

 

The Maracás Menchen mine in Brazil operated by Largo Resources is the only vanadium mine in the western world.  There are no North American producers with 3 undeveloped deposits being reported in the central USA.  Listed in the table below are the pounds of vanadium reported for each deposit compared to the conservative estimate of 1 billion pounds just at the Keating Hill East Zone.

 

 

Maracás Menchen, Brazil                                                                                 474,000,000

 

Cellcube Nevada                                                                                                 124,000,000

 

Gibellini, Nevada                                                                                                132,000,000

 

Vanadium One, Nevada                                                                                    289,000,000

 

Keating Hill East, NL                                                                                        1,000,000,000*

 

* Based on conservative estimate of 300,000,000 tonnes

 

The overall value for the Four Corners Project can be considered much greater than the value of the vanadium for the Keating Hill East Zone using the conservative calculation.  For example, there is the untested potential at the other 2 magnetic zones, one of which is twice the size of the KHE and there are the added values of the other minerals, titanium and iron ore.  Compared to the titanium grade of 2% reported for the large Speewah Deposit in Western Australia the titanium grade at Four Corners is several times greater.

 

Other attributes of the Four Corners Project and its deposits which add to the projects economic viability include:

 

a)       An attractive mining architecture,

b)       Excellent infrastructure with paved highway and power corridor through the project area,

c)       Strategic location near the Harmon, ice free, deep sea port complex at Stephenville, and

d)       Highly favorable mining jurisdiction with a favorable tax regime and no land tenure issues.

 

For further details on these project attributes please visit our website at www.triplenineresources.com.

 

A potential benefit to the project is its proximity to the recently constructed, modern hydrometallurgical plant located at Long Harbor along the south coast of the island, owned and operated by Vale and providing state of the art processing for metals.  SRK Consultants who supervised and reported on the metallurgical testing at the ALS Ammtec Laboratories concluded “It is probable that one or more of the concentrates will require a hydrometallurgical processing step where the concentrate is leached, and the product is selectively precipitated to meet market specifications”.

 

There are enquiries on the project from world-wide sources and to date we have received proposals for advancing the Four Corners Project.  Based on the ongoing expressions of interest we expect to receive further proposals.  The board will carefully evaluate all proposals received to determine the most favorable and profitable path forward.