Australian Vanadium Ltd. said Jan. 10 that it raised about A$7.4 million through the conversion of ASX-listed options, strengthening its cash position to accelerate development at the Gabanintha vanadium project in Western Australia.

Shareholders converted 204,599,484 options before the Dec. 31, 2018, deadline, raising nearly A$6.2 million. An additional 62,750,000 options were underwritten by Westar Capital Ltd., raising nearly A$1.3 million.

The vanadium explorer's cash balance was brought up to about A$9.7 million following the option conversion.

A pilot scale metallurgical study, part of work to complete a definitive feasibility study, will begin this month. In addition, environmental studies and other works related to the study ongoing.

In December 2018, a pre-feasibility study on the Gabanintha project outlined an ungeared posttax net present value, discounted at 8%, of US$1.41 billion and a 47.5% internal rate of return based on a steady vanadium pentoxide price of US$20 per pound over the operation's initial 17-year mine life.