The Neometals Ltd (ASX: NMT) share price is up today after the company announced that its Chinese partner, IMUMR, has started pilot plant trails at the Barrambie Titanium and Vanadium Project.
At the time of writing, the valuable metals miner's shares are trading 1.49% higher at 34 cents after reaching an intraday high of 36 cents.
Located 80km northwest of Sandstone in Western Australia, Neometals owns the Barrambie Titanium and Vanadium Project. The company considers it the most advanced, undeveloped hard-rock titanium mineral resource in Australia.
Neometals has an approved mining permit for the site and has spent around $30 million in exploration and evaluation since 2003.
Pilot trials commence
In today's release, Neometals advised that IMUMR has begun pilot trials on gravity concentrates following its recent test work in China. The previous work carried out confirmed results of conventional reductive roasting and magnetic separation of gravity concentrates.
IMUMR will fund and run the trials to substantiate the breakthrough process. It will show that gravity concentrate can be roasted and separated into two high-quality saleable products.
Neometals management said, "It is a significant step forward in realising Neometals' goal to develop Barrambie as a capital-light concentrate operation initially and retaining the optionality to value add through downstream processing in the future."
The pilot trials are expected to conclude sometime in the June quarter of this year. Product evaluation results from potential suitors will follow in the September quarter of 2021.
In addition, Neometals will seek to ramp-up discussions for a 'build-own-operate-transfer' arrangement.
About the Neometals share price
Over the past 12 months, the Neometals share price has gained more than 90% for investors. The company's shares hit a multi-year low of 13.5 cents in the COVID-19 market rout of March 2020 before gradually moving upwards. It's worth noting that last month, its shares hit a multi-year high of 42.5 cents.
Based on the current share price, Neometals commands a market capitalisation of roughly $185.4 million.
