ASX-listed resources company Australian Vanadium (ASX:AVL) has executed a $49 million grant agreement with the Australian government to support the development of the Australian Vanadium Project in Western Australia.
The company reports the grant is part of the Modern Manufacturing Initiative – Manufacturing Collaboration Stream from the Department of Industry, Science, and Resources.
This grant will assist Australian Vanadium, in collaboration with industry partners, to create a vanadium battery industry in Australia by funding eligible activities to construct and commission a concentrator and a ‘high-purity’ vanadium processing facility capable of using green hydrogen as part of the extraction process.
Speaking to Mining.com.au, Australian Vanadium Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Graham Arvidson says the grant agreement is the wind in the company’s sails to move forward with the project. He says it’s a great vote of confidence from the Federal Government for the company and its collaboration partners to grow the vanadium industry together.
“Ultimately, it’s a ratification of all the good work that the team here at Australian Vanadium has done to develop the project to this point and a vote of confidence that we have the team and the asset to move forward with our collaboration partners to make a big impact here in Western Australia, and Australia generally.
We’re progressing well. We’re really focused on all the activities that we need to achieve Final Investment Decision (FID), so we continue to work laser-focused on offtake opportunities for the vanadium and our iron-titanium co-products, and we’re also working through the debt and equity financing side and all the things required to achieve those 2 outcomes with FID.
“We continue to work laser-focused on offtake opportunities for the vanadium and our iron-titanium co-products”
And then last but not least, we continue to make very good inroads on all of our approvals and stakeholder engagements to make the project shovel-ready in the near term.
We’ve got a great team, and we’re all really putting our shoulder to it and working hard on all those initiatives and feeling very confident that the economic and political situation will really support what we want to do and bring the benefits of our project through FID to the region and Australia.”
Additionally, the grant encompasses support for all stages of the vanadium production value chain, from mining and concentrating to vanadium processing for use in electrolyte production, which the company says is a ‘key’ enabler for the Australian vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) industry.
As part of the activities under the agreement, Australian Vanadium will also collaborate with Bryah Resources (ASX:BYH) to explore options to extract cobalt, nickel, copper, and gold economically from the project.
Meanwhile, broader activities needed to realise the overall project, including developing the mine and supporting infrastructure, will be funded from other sources.
Australian Vanadium reports the grant will be paid progressively over the term of the agreement, subject to milestone compliance by the company with its obligations under the agreement.
An initial payment of $9.8 million is scheduled to be received by the company in June 2023, followed by 3 further payments, with the final payment slated for August 2025.
Arvidson tells this news service that local vanadium production is a ‘critical’ piece of the puzzle to decarbonise and move towards Australia’s 2050 net-zero targets.
“Now, really, the scale of this stationary storage piece justifies not only vanadium redox flow batteries but, ideally, many other things might be pumped into hydro — to some extent, lithium-ion, which will inevitably get mostly syphoned into things that move electric vehicles, so we need technologies like this 20-year-old proven vanadium redox flow technology to fill that void of gigawatt-hour scale grid stabilisation mechanisms.
There aren’t pumped hydro dams everywhere in Australia, and the most commercial and, honestly, very cost-competitive and technically very sound and superior option for grid operators is vanadium redox flow battery technology.
And really, in terms of supply chain growth, the key input there is going to be new mines producing high-quality, high-purity vanadium electrolyte. So how critical is it?
“I think it’s really critical if we are serious about achieving our 2050 targets, and if we’re serious about continuing to increase penetration of solar and wind across Australia”
I think it’s really critical if we are serious about achieving our 2050 targets, and if we’re serious about continuing to increase penetration of solar and wind across Australia, and not just within Australia; you’ll see VRFBs being taken up at very large scale in China, the US, and Europe as we move forward.”
Arvidson says the company will be taking as much time as it needs to ensure it gets the best possible offtake arrangement in the lead-up to a FID.
Australian Vanadium is an ASX-listed resources company focused on advancing the development of the Australian Vanadium Project at Gabanintha and Tenindewa in Western Australia. The company says the project is one of the most advanced vanadium projects being developed globally, with 239 million tonnes @ 0.73% V2O5, including a ‘high-grade’ zone of 95.6 million tonnes @ 1.07% V2O5.
Write to Harry Mulholland at Mining.com.au
Images: Australian Vanadium Ltd
