Column: Electric dreams turn into a nightmare for battery metals
A sector that was once racing to build new supply has been closing mines and deferring projects as low prices bite into the cost curve.
Prophecy Development (TSX:PCY) announced that it has submitted, through its wholly-owned US subsidiary Nevada Vanadium, the applications and engineering design reports for the primary mining permits that govern project construction, operations and closure for its Gibellini vanadium project located in Eureka County, Nevada.
The documents were submitted before the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, with copies provided to the Bureau of Land Management and the Gibellini project environmental impact statement contractor SWCA.
According to Prophecy, Gibellini’s annual production profile of 9.75 million lb. of V2O5 outlined in the independent preliminary economic assessment is sufficient to meet the United States current vanadium consumption requirement
In a press release, Prophecy said that the permit applications were for the water pollution control permit and the class II air quality permit.
As part of the water permit, Gibellini will be required to meet a zero-discharge performance standard such that waters of the State will not be degraded.
The air quality permit, on the other hand, is for facilities that emit less than 100 tonnes per year of any one regulated pollutant. “Since the vanadium processing will utilize a heap leach, the emissions will be under the threshold for more complex air permits,” Prophecy’s media statement reads.
According to the Canadian miner, Gibellini’s engineering design incorporates stringent emission control technology to minimize its carbon footprint.
“The Prophecy team is working diligently with the support of the federal and state regulators and is actively engaging all stakeholders in order to obtain all the state and federal permits required to begin construction of North America’s first primary vanadium mine,” Ron Espell, the firm’s VP of Environment and Sustainability, said. “We are on track to initiate the EIS process after the Notice of Intent is published, which will be a milestone in permitting the Gibellini project.”
Gibellini is designed to be an open-pit, heap leach operation. It is located about 25 miles south of the town of Eureka and in close proximity of Prophecy’s Louie Hill vanadium deposit.
