Gold Valley acquires multi-decade, shovel-ready Balla Balla VTM project in the Pilbara, WA

Gold Valley Pilbara, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Gold Valley Group, is pleased to announce the successful acquisition of BBI Group from Todd Corporation to become the 100% owner of the Balla Balla Vanadium, Titanium, and Magnetite (VTM) Project in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

Highlights:

• Balla Balla is a world-class, advanced VTM development project on track to commence production in late 2026:
  • Mineral Resource Estimate: 440Mt 
  • Stage 1 nameplate production target of 2mtpa VTM
• Project significantly de-risked: 
  • More than $100m invested to date
  • Fully permitted with all major approvals in place
  • Simple processing flowsheet and proven beneficiation methods
• Staged approach to drive long-term shareholder value and create WA jobs
  • Stage 1 – VTM concentrate production
  • Stage 2 – unlock the value chain with downstream processing
  • Stage 3 – resource expansion and mine life extension

Balla Balla is an advanced, long-life VTM project, strategically located with access to grid electricity and established gas and water infrastructure, and 110km by sealed road to the port of Port Headland. 

The acquisition of Balla Balla would see Gold Valley create new jobs in WA, realise significant synergies with its existing iron ore assets and bolster Australia’s access to two highly strategic critical minerals – vanadium and titanium.

Sternship Advisers acted as lead adviser to Todd Corporation on the transaction.

Yuzheng Xie, Executive Chairman of Gold Valley said:

“The acquisition of BBI Group will establish Gold Valley Pilbara as a vertically integrated player in Western Australia’s thriving critical minerals sector. Gold Valley’s proven success as a multi-commodity mine operator and project developer will see this world-class and very long-life asset into operations by late 2026. 

“Gold Valley provides employment opportunities for Western Australia’s skilled and technical workers, across multiple commodities and operations in regional Western Australia. 

In the lead up to production and throughout operations Balla Balla will require many highly-technical and skilled roles, creating new jobs and employment opportunities in regional Western Australia – both directly and indirectly through contractors and specialists.

“Our strong partnerships with global VTM leaders will underpin our staged approach to capture the entire value chain as we open up new avenues for Australia’s critical minerals industry in the medium to long-term.”

The VTM opportunity 

Vanadium Titanium and Magnetite (VTM) concentrate is a precursor to these highly sought-after metals:

• Vanadium: high-strength steel and grid-scale battery storage
• Titanium: aerospace, medical, and industrial applications
• Magnetite: steel

Processing Balla Balla VTM

Balla Balla ore is amenable to simple and well-understood VTM concentrate processing methods.

• Mining and concentration: extracting and beneficiating the VTM ore
• Reduction: using hydrogen or natural gas to reduce the VTM material
• Melting and separation: melting the reduced material in a vacuum induction furnace to precisely separate:
• High-purity iron melt: a valuable steel feedstock
• Enriched slag: containing concentrated vanadium and titanium, ready for further extraction into high-demand alloys and chemicals.