[Ferro-Allloys.com] What Is Vanadium?

Vanadium demand is not expected to fall anytime soon as the steel industry strengthens and the vanadium redox flow battery sector expands, with many ASX-listed mineral exploration stocks turning their attention to the commodity in recent years in the hopes of capturing a piece of this firming market.

Vanadium is one of the few industrial metals thought to be appealing.

Vanadium's name stems from its exotic past, since it may be found naturally in a wide range of brilliant colors as separate compounds. It was named after Vanadis, the Swedish Goddess of Beauty and Fertility.

Where does vanadium play a role?

Currently, 91 percent of vanadium produced is utilized in steel alloys, although it has a wide range of other uses. It is widely utilized in nuclear reactors, for example.

The adaptable substance is also used as a ceramic pigment and in a variety of medications.

Vanadium may be used to treat illnesses ranging from diabetes to high cholesterol. The use of this material in batteries, on the other hand, is what makes it so desirable right now.

Vanadium is a rare transition metal in nature, which may explain why it took a few years to be identified.

Vanadium would go on to gain international acclaim after being used to reduce weight and increase strength in the steel alloy chassis of the first mass-produced Ford Model T, as well as in other racing vehicles. Today, vanadium is largely used as an alloying agent, with 85 percent of production used to make items such as axles, bicycle frames, crankshafts, gears, and a wide range of high speed tool steels.

However, the use of vanadium in vanadium flow batteries has recently caught the attention of investors, sending the metal's price up by more than 130 percent in the previous year - a price rise bigger than that of other "hot" battery metals such as cobalt, lithium, and nickel.

The price has risen due to a lack of supply and strong orders from the steel industry, as well as many experts' belief that vanadium flow batteries, due to their longer life and greater stability, will eventually replace lithium batteries for large-scale applications such as grid stabilization battery plants.

Vanadium has the potential to be used in a variety of batteries, including lithium vanadium oxide as a prospective high energy density anode for lithium-ion batteries and vanadium phosphates as a cathode in lithium vanadium phosphate batteries, another form of lithium-ion battery.

Vanadium is used to strengthen steel in 91% of situations, although it is also utilized in chemicals and aerospace applications. However, it is the potential for grid energy storage in vanadium that makes it intriguing. Only around 1% of vanadium is now used to make batteries, but this might change if vanadium-based battery storage becomes more widespread. Vanadium might be beneficial in the cathodes of electric vehicle batteries. Vanadium miners would surely gain from new sources of demand.

Vanadium battery opportunity

As renewables have risen in popularity, so have investments in battery-based energy storage. The most prevalent are lithium-ion batteries, which are used in electric cars and smartphones, but vanadium-based batteries might potentially be utilized to store power on a large scale.

Vanadium flow batteries outlast lithium-ion batteries in terms of longevity, safety, and robustness. Vanadium batteries do not decay and do not catch fire during the charge and recharge cycle for at least 20 years. This qualifies them for utility-scale storage, although their sensitivity to fluctuating vanadium prices remains a concern.

Vanadium flow batteries are already available from firms such as Invinity Energy Systems in the United Kingdom. Despite the fact that high metal prices favor miners but not battery makers, vanadium producers such as Largo Resources and Bushveld Minerals are pushing into vanadium battery production.

New Uses For Vanadium

Vanadium has long been used in implanted defibrillator battery cathodes, but recent research is finding new potential for the mineral in renewable energy.

The metal has the potential to be used in electric vehicle battery cathodes as well as to help make windows smarter. The metal's specific properties, in particular, may retain heat in the winter and prevent heat in the summer.

This mystical substance, on the other hand, has a place in power.

VRFBs (Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries) are non-flammable, reusable, and easily scalable batteries. They deliver continuous power and have a life expectancy of 20 years or more. The batteries are appropriate for a broad variety of sustainable energy applications, including solar, microgrid, wind, and microgrid, due to this combination of qualities.

"The beauty of the vanadium redox battery is that you can charge and discharge it simultaneously, which a lithium battery cannot do," says Ivanhoe Mines founder Robert Friedland.

"You can put solar and wind power into the battery during the day, and excess grid electricity into the battery at night, and you can have a dependable output into the grid at the same time with a vanadium redox flow battery."

Should You Invest In Vanadium?

Vanadium was once known as Cornerstone Metals. In 2018, its name was changed.

The Carlin Vanadium Project in Nevada is the focus of First Vanadium's operations. According to a recent investor report, the mine has the "largest best grade primary Vanadium deposit" in North America, and First Vanadium owns the property. The vanadium grade is significant, but the mine's location is critical.

The vast bulk of vanadium comes from China. Aside from tariff worries, which have escalated the price of the material, China has also had substantial environmental challenges, which have led to the closure of numerous mines. First Vanadium's Carlin mine is the only source of vanadium in the United States. This implies that there will be no tariffs to deal with and that transportation will be straightforward.

Vanadium prices have risen by 60% in the previous year to more than $11/lb, thanks to a growing global economy. Sanctions on Russia, the world's second-largest supplier of vanadium behind China, might drive up prices even more. At the same time, there isn't a lot of new supplies. Largo's Maracas Menchen vanadium mine in Brazil is the first to begin active in almost 30 years.

Of course, past achievement is no guarantee of future success. The vanadium market is small, and prices have been volatile. They soared in 2018, when China halted production for environmental reasons, then fell precipitously.

• [Editor:tianyawei]