Largo Resources (TSX:V.LGO, Stock Forum), a Toronto-based firm engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of mineral properties in both Brazil and Canada, announced today that the company had commenced warming up the kiln at the Maracas Vanadium project located in Bahia, Brazil.
According to the news release, the kiln warm-up brings the facility commissioning process to an end and once the kiln has reached design temperature, the company will begin feeding vanadium concentrate through the kiln and downstream facility with vanadium pentoxide production expected to occur shortly thereafter.
Company Senior Vice President and Technical Director of Brazil Operations, Les Ford, commented on the achievement, “This is a key milestone in the project's development. Once the kiln has reached around 1000 Celsius, we will immediately begin feeding the vanadium concentrate that we have been stockpiling through the facility.”
He then added, “Once the feed to the kiln has begun, there is a buildup of vanadium within the processing plant for a few days, with first V2O5 flake production starting very shortly after.”
Mark Brennan, president and CEO of Largo, went on to conclude, “We are extremely pleased with this development and remain positive about our prospects during the initial ramp-up period. We look forward to becoming the world's newest producer of vanadium in the very near-term.”
Largo was in the news recently when the company alerted Market Surveillance top irregular trading activities yesterday.
Shares climbed 15.56% on the news to $0.26 per share.
Currently there are 984.4m outstanding shares with a market cap of $256.0 million.