Mine Materials Assessment – St Elmo Vanadium Project

The St Elmo Vanadium project being developed by Multicom Resources is a shallow oxide deposit underlain by Black Shale. RGS developed a detailed geochemical and physical sampling and analytical program (GaPSaAP). The SEIS GaPSaAP utilised over 150 samples from test pits (4 to 4 m deep), bulk ore trenches (7 to 8 m deep) and many hundreds of samples from reverse circulation drilling programs to quantify material properties.

The data from the material assessment was used to evaluate the potential for acid, saline and metalliferous drainage. Ongoing work includes the collection of bulk samples and soil fertility, geochemical and physical testing.

Subsequent work included development of conceptual models and numerical vadose modelling of the proposed soil cover system that is proposed to rehabilitate the tailings and rejects materials in the TSF.

Future work includes using the same data to quantify how the rehabilitated strip mine pits will perform after backfilling (in the short term) and then determine how changes in settlement and the development of grass alters the vadose properties. Other work being undertaken by RGS include ecotoxicity analysis of the aqueous and solid phase tailings and reject streams, and GoldSim water balance and water quality modelling.