The FEED process will include all of the operation's process plant equipment. The design and engineering of the entire processing flow sheet will include where magnetite concentrate will be produced, and the downstream processing plant, where the project will use the Tivan hydrometallurgical process to produce its vanadium pentoxide, titanium dioxide and iron oxide.

SMS will also submit to TNG a fixed price engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) proposal, which will contain production quantity, production rate and product quality guarantees.

TNG managing director Paul Burton said appointing SMS under the expanded terms will allow Mount Peake to be fully engineered, supplied and potentially constructed by one engineer.

"We are extremely pleased to have achieved this outcome with SMS group," he said. "Having SMS also assume technical and product guarantees under the resulting fixed-price EPC arrangement significantly de-risks the project and marks one of the most significant milestones its development history."

SMS responsible managing director Herbert Weissenbaeck said that Mount Peake, using Tivan, can possibly "essentially disrupt the TiO2 pigment and vanadium space" going forward.

Mount Peake, which is 100%-owned, has a projected 17-year mine life. Its JORC-compliant resource estimates include 160 million tonnes of vanadium (at 0.28%), 5.3% titanium and 23% iron, 118Mt of which is a measured resource status. It will mine at a rate of 3Mt/y initially, ramping up to 6Mt/y after its first four years.