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BATTERY MINERALS PREVIEW

AVL ready for big 2020

AVL recently completed two 2,000m RC
t may not have gained traction in its we have been pushing hard on VSUN,” drilling programmes designed to upgrade
Ihome market yet but Australian Vana- Algar said. “We have brought a new per- more than 50mt of inferred resources
dium Ltd (AVL) is finding plenty of interest son aboard to push that market and he
for its steel additive-cum-battery storage has already brought in two projects.”
proposition in Europe. The vanadium redox flow battery sec-
AVL made advances on several fronts tor is still in its infancy but continues to
in 2019 with the terms of its DFS for the grow. There is currently 1 GWh of new
Australian vanadium project (previously vanadium energy storage technologies
Gabanintha) defined and metallurgical established, requiring 10,000t of high-
test work and drilling confirming earlier purity vanadium pentoxide.
robust numbers. However, the compa- “The driver for vanadium has always
ny’s progress on the energy storage front been Chinese rebar and as long as that
– its VSUN Energy subsidiary sold two is growing, vanadium will grow,” Algar
vanadium redox flow batteries to farms in said. “It is about 3% currently which
Victoria during the year – has added an- means there is room for one or two more
other layer of intrigue to the investment mines of our size over the next decade.
case. That is why we have the active strategy
“It is a new market and a new set of around marketing and selling vanadium
demands and in Europe they loved that redox flow batteries. China currently has
angle of primary production and new a vanadium flow battery under construc-
uses,” AVL managing director Vince Al- tion with another three in the planning.
gar told Paydirt. “I’m not sure Australian They are twice the size of the Hornsdale
investors get that yet but Europe, and battery [the Tesla-installed battery in
Germany in particular, is proving fertile South Australia] at 1GWh, which equates
for investors.” to a year of production from our project.
The strategy around VSUN is simple; “From a volume increase play, batter-
create a market for vanadium redox flow ies are the best upside we could get.”
batteries in order to lessen vanadium’s To meet such battery-related predic-
reliance on the steel sector. tions, AVL must have a viable mine oper-
“I believe you make your own luck and ation and the company will spend much
Vince Algar

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