QEM joins up with UQ as a new vanadium company hits ASX
The University of Queensland has signed on with fledgling vanadium company QEM to improve the value and yields from the Julia Creek deposit and search for rare earths.
Vanadium exploration near Julia Creek
The deal was announced as another north Queensland vanadium company hit the ASX.
The Perth based Richmond Vanadium listed its shares yesterday and sank from its 40 cent float price to 35 cents.
Vanadium is used in grid-scale batteries and the Julia Creek area is regarded as a world class resource. Another vanadium company, Multicom, is currently developing the St Elmo project near Julia Creek.
The industry has the backing of the State Government which has provided $10 million towards a common user facility in Townsville that would become an industrial pilot and demonstration plant for the processing of vanadium.
QEM said today that UQ’s Sustainable Minerals Institute would start characterising the mineralogy of its Julia Creek shale to assist in optimising the resource and improving the yield.
UQ will bring in experts in mineral surface chemistry, process mineralogy, ore and tailings and mining and geotechnical engineering and would analyse if rare earth elements were hosted in samples and the potential to explore for them.
Managing director Gavin Loyden said it was a satisfying step towards delivering on the “exciting minerals province”.
He said the inclusion of UQ would reinforce efforts to ensure the responsible supply of high purity vanadium pentroxide in the Queensland supply chain.
