Tivan (ASX:TVN) has produced high-purity vanadium pentoxide @ 99.86% without the use of solvent extraction at the Speewah Vanadium Project in Western Australia.
This news comes after the company conducted a salt roast testwork program for Speewah, which was designed to evaluate the commercial viability of development pathways from Speewah ore to vanadium flow batteries (VFB). The program is one of two separate vanadium processing technology pathways.
As a result of the testwork and achieving the target high-purity vanadium pentoxide specification, the vanadium pentoxide is suitable for the next phase of testwork targeting production of high-purity vanadium electrolyte at the specifications provided by Japanese manufacturer of VFBs Sumitomo Electric Industries.
Tivan, which has a market capitalisation of $240.24 million, says this program has begun at the University of New South Wales and is expected to be completed in Q1 2025.
Executive Chairman Grant Wilson says the testwork results confirm Speewah’s status as Australia’s premier vanadium titanomagnetite resource and the technical viability of the pathway to supply VFB at scale.
“Speewah’s comparative advantages include high vanadium in concentrate grade, low strip ratio, close proximity to port and vast size,” Wilson says.
“While the commercial pathway to develop a vanadium project in Australia remains challenging, the testwork results and our rapid progress with the Speewah Fluorite Project, put Tivan in a poll position.
“We will continue to advance the project development pathway, ensuring that the Speewah Vanadium Project contributes to Tivan’s sum of parts valuation and in support of the development of long-duration energy storage capabilities across northern Australia.”
Meanwhile, the second testwork form is the TIVAN+ processing technology in strategic partnership with CSIRO — which was conducted in May 2024.
The company has received third-party interest in the technology, including from vanadium titanomagnetite resource owners in Australia and overseas. Tivan is continuing to advance opportunities for collaboration in parallel with CSIRO.
The Speewah Project is located in the Kimberley region of Western Australia and hosts two separate critical mineral deposits — fluorite and vanadium.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Tivan
