Vanadium batteries are ‘here to stay’ says ASX’s newest tech...

Vanadium batteries are ‘here to stay’ says ASX’s newest tech metal player​

It’s taken a while for investors to realise the potential of vanadium in the battery metals race, but interest is starting to pick up.
The price of vanadium has rocketed 550 per cent in the past three years, outpacing other commodities, including the rival battery metals lithium and cobalt.

There are 35 small cap ASX stocks with exposure to vanadium according to resources data provider MakCorp.
Of these, 27 are ahead over the past 12 months — including King River Copper which is up 1440 per cent. Another half a dozen have made gains of 100 per cent to 384 per cent.
>> Scroll down for a list of ASX stocks with vanadium exposure, courtesy of leading ASX data provider MakCorp
About 90 per cent of global vanadium production is used to make high-strength steel, but future demand stems from its role in vanadium redox flow batteries (VRB), which can store more power and last much longer than lithium-ion batteries.
This makes it highly sought after for industrial and domestic energy storage, though it’s unlikely to be used in electric car batteries.
Chalice Gold enters vanadium market
Chalice Gold Mines (ASX:CHN) is the latest to put its foot on vanadium ground in Australia.
As a gold player, Chalice’s share price has tumbled 44 per cent since October last year.
But the company announced last week it has applied for exploration licences prospective for vanadium and nickel in Queensland and Western Australia.
Chalice executive chairman Tim Goyder told * investor interest was definitely starting to be realised in the vanadium space.
“Vanadium flow batteries are here to stay, like the lithium batteries are,” he said on the sidelines of the Resources Rising Stars conference in Queensland’s Gold Coast.
The only pure-play producers of vanadium are Toronto’s Largo Resources, which processes 1.4 million tonnes each year from its Vanadio de Maracás Menchen mine in Brazil, and Bushveld Minerals, which processes 2 million tonnes from the Vametco operations in South Africa.
Largo is now a $1 billion producer, while Bushveld has gone from a market cap of £20 million ($35.4 million) to roughly £250 million in just one year.

• Chalice is looking for vanadium hosted in shale rather than the more common magnetite-hosted vanadium because it is much easier to mine.

“Historically around Richmond is the old Julia Creek area – the scene of a lot of work done during the oil crisis for oil shales,” Mr Goyder explained.
“Since then the oil market collapsed and in recent times the vanadium price has risen.
“It’s tripled over the last 12 months from $US6 ($8) a pound to over $US19 a pound, so vanadium is very much in demand, particularly shale-hosted vanadium.”
Chalice’s Flinders River vanadium project in Queensland surrounds the 2.6 billion tonne shale-hosted Richmond vanadium project owned by Intermin Resources (ASX:IRC).
Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR) also has ground in the region as well.
Intermin’s share price has climbed 80 per cent in the past year, while Liontown’s share price has jumped 207 per cent.
Here’s a list of ASX stocks with exposure to tin courtesy of leading ASX data provider MakCorp. (Scroll or swipe for full table)

	Ticker	Company	One-year price change	Price May 29 (intraday)	Market Cap

	Ticker
1	Company
2	One-year price change
3	Price May 29 (intraday)
4	Market Cap
5	ACP	AUDALIA RESOURCES	40%	0.021	6.0M
6	AEE	AURA ENERGY	-12%	0.022	20.7M
7	ARU	ARAFURA RESOURCES	75%	0.098	57.0M
8	AUR	AURIS MINERALS	20%	0.077	29.8M
9	AVL	AUSTRALIAN VANADIUM	167%	0.04	62.5M
10	AVZ	AVZ MINERALS	385%	0.16	298.9M
11	BAT	BATTERY MINERALS	-15%	0.056	53.3M
12	CHN	CHALICE GOLD	-15%	0.145	37.9M
13	CZR	COZIRON RESOURCES	50%	0.018	32.1M
14	EME	ENERGY METALS	10%	0.11	23.1M
15	GED	GOLDEN DEEPS	47%	0.044	8.1M
16	IRC	INTERMIN	81%	0.17	38.6M
17	KOR	KORAB RESOURCES	100%	0.034	10.3M
18	KRC	KING RIVER COPPER	1440%	0.077	86.7M
19	LML	LINCOLN MINERALS	-47%	0.024	13.8M
20	LTR	LIONTOWN RESOURCES	208%	0.04	32.8M
21	MTB	MOUNT BURGESS	50%	0.009	3.8M
22	MUS	MUSTANG RESOURCES	-54%	0.019	17.4M
23	MZN	MARINDI METALS	20%	0.012	21.4M
24	NMT	NEOMETALS	28%	0.34	182.1M
25	PNN	PEPINNINI	40%	0.021	11.2M
26	POW	PROTEAN ENERGY	10%	0.034	10.5M
27	PUR	PURSUIT MINERALS	-92%	0.105	6.9M
28	RDS	REDSTONE RESOURCES	91%	0.021	8.0M
29	RTR	RUMBLE RESOURCES	191%	0.064	23.0M
30	SBR	SABRE RESOURCES	50%	0.015	5.5M
31	SI6	SIX SIGMA METALS	0%	0.012	5.5M
32	SO4	SALTAKE POTASH	23%	0.54	94.5M
33	SRN	SUREFIRE	-18%	0.014	5.5M
34	SXX	SOUTHERN CROSS	43%	0.01	10.8M
35	SYR	SYRAH RESOURCES	21%	3.18	945.8M
36	TMT	TECHNOLOGY METALS AUS	102%	0.405	22.9M
37	TNG	TNG	8%	0.14	116.4M
38	TON	TRITON MINERALS	27%	0.071	58.4M
39	VMC	VENUS METALS	70%	0.15	11.5M

Biggest ASX vanadium gainers
The biggest gainers in the vanadium space are King River Copper (ASX:KRC) with a 1440 per cent spike in its share price over the past 12 months, followed by AVZ Minerals (ASX:AVZ), which has witnessed a 385 per cent jump in its share price.
Rumble Resources (ASX:RTR), Australian Vanadium (ASX:AVL) and Technology Metals Australia (ASX:TMT) have all more than doubled their share prices over the same period.
Tando Resources (ASX:TNO) newly acquired “SPD” vanadium project in South Africa is reporting high grades of over 2 per cent from magnetite pipes that are similar to the magnetite pipe once mined by Xstrata at the Kennedy’s Vale mine.
The stock — which recently underwent a 4.62-for-1 share split — more than doubled in March after Tando signed a deal to buy 74 per cent of South Africa’s Vanadium Resources which owns SPD vanadium.
Paul Vollant from TNG (ASX:TNG) says vanadium redox batteries are gaining momentum with strong growth and worldwide commercial deployment.
The market forecast is for compound annual growth of 30.8 per cent between 2015 and 2020.
Mr Vollant says this represents a $US6 billion market opportunity in 2020.
TNG has already proven it can produce high purity, commercial-grade, vanadium electrolyte from its Mount Peake project in the Northern Territory.
Mount Peake is expected to produce 243,000 tonnes of vanadium pentoxide, 10.6 million tonnes of iron oxide and 3.5 million tonnes of titanium dioxide over a 17-year mine-life.