The Conversation (0)
Discovery of a vanadium-based battery has not only led to major advancements in green technology, but also a boom in vanadium mining.
Vanadium is a corrosion-resistant metal, making it extremely useful in the chemical industry. It also is very resistant to the absorption of neutrons, giving it applications in the nuclear power industry. However, it wasn’t until recently that vanadium found a new use in green technologies.
Vanadium, because of its ability to supercharge batteries, allowing for electric and hybrid vehicles to go farther and faster, has been combined with lithium to create “supercharged” batteries. When it comes to renewable energy sources, like solar, one of the hurdles that engineers have been working on is the absence of efficient mass energy storage. Luckily, it has been discovered that a vanadium-based battery is one of the leading energy storage systems.
This has not only led to major advancements in green technology, but a boom in vanadium mining. The following are three vanadium companies that investors should keep a close eye on:
Largo Resources (TSXV:LGO)
Largo Resources’ flagship project is the Maracas vanadium project. The Canadian company has a focus on developing vanadium and tungsten projects in Canada and Brazil, and owns both the highest-grade vanadium project in the world as well as a second undeveloped high-grade vanadium, iron and titanium deposit, the Campo Alegre de Lourdes iron-vanadium project in Brazil.
The Maracas project is located on a 66,718.5 acre property just over 500 miles north of Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, and is 100 percent owned by Largo Resources. The deposit is hosted within the Jacare River mafic-ultramafic intrusion, which extends for 43.5 miles along a north-south strike, averaging about 0.75 miles in width. Largo Resources commenced construction on the Maracas project in June 2013, and commissioning is targeted for the fourth quarter of 2013. The mine is expected to produce 11,400 tonnes of vanadium oxide equivalent over its 29-year life.
American Vanadium (TSXV:AVC)
As the only company that mines vanadium in the United States, American Vanadium will produce about 5 percent of the global demand for vanadium. The company owns 100 percent of the open pit, heap leach Gibellini Project, which represents 131.369 million pounds of measured and indicated vanadium.
The Gibellini project, located in Nevada, was the subject of a feasibility study in September of 2011 that projected an average of 11.4 million pounds of vanadium pentoxide per year. The feasibility study also indicated that American Vanadium could potentially become the lowest cost primary vanadium producer in the world with a strip ratio of 0.22 and a unit operating cost of $4.10 per pound. The project’s net present value is $170.1 million at a 7 percent discount rate, and should see a payback in just under two-and-a-half years.
PacificOre Mining (TSXV:PC)
As the sole owner of three separate projects throughout Canada, PacificOre is no stranger to vanadium mining. The company calls itself a vanadium leader and is currently exploring the Lac Dore vanadium project, located in Chibougamau, in the northern part of Quebec. The project consists of 42 mineral claims covering 1,600 acres. The company is also exploring what has been dubbed the “Game Changer Project,” which is a group of vanadium claims in Ontario that is expected to mirror the merits of the company’s Lac Dore iron and titanium deposits.
Editorial Disclosure: Largo Resources and American Vanadium are clients of the Investing News Network. This article is not paid-for content.