Massive vanadium deposit at Julia Ck

JULIA Creek has a world-class vanadium and shale oil deposit with the potential to produce innovative energy fuels, according to Perth-based explorer QEM Ltd.

QEM announced yesterday it had identified one of the largest vanadium deposits in the world on tenements just outside the North West Queensland grazing town.

Latest work upgraded the company’s resource by more than 60 per cent to 2760 million tonnes, grading an average of 0.3 per cent vanadium over tenements comprising about 250sq km.

The resource upgrade incorporated historic data from drill holes in a newly granted tenement, data from a recent 26km 2D seismic survey completed in May and seven recently cored holes by QEM.

QEM executive director David Fitch said the resource upgrade was a huge development for the company, making the Julia Creek resource one of the largest vanadium deposits in the world.

“With such a significant resource, we are continuing our metallurgical test work to identify and develop the most efficient and cost-effective way to extract saleable products from the project, in the form of vanadium pentoxide, transport fuels and, potentially, hydrogen,” Mr Fitch said. “QEM is highly committed to providing innovative energy solutions, and we look forward to further advancing the flagship Julia Creek vanadium/oil shale project over the coming months.”

Mr Fitch said they were in the midst of pre-feasibility work looking at multiple processing techniques.

Earlier this year, QEM announced successful results using Canadian company Petroteq Energy’s solvent technology in preliminary testing.

The results showed the technology was able to recover up to 65 per cent of the contained oil from the Julia Creek samples. An average 20 per cent of residual material contained metals including vanadium.

Its tenements are 16km east of Julia Creek, close to the Flinders Highway and rail line.