Surging prices for vanadium, a niche metal used to harden steel, have been a boon for London-listed Bushveld Minerals this year, helping fuel a share price rally amid a broader industry pullback.
Now the South African company wants to target vanadium’s growing use in another industry: batteries, with an ambitious target to manufacture the technology as the country’s electricity grid moves away from coal-powered generation.
But Bushveld faces a conundrum: while higher vanadium prices are good for miners, they are detrimental to battery makers, who need to further reduce their costs to make them economic for use on electricity grids. To solve this Bushveld hopes to lease the metal to battery companies as well as assemble the batteries in South Africa. It wants to build a $10m plant to produce battery electrolyte, backed by the state-owned Industrial Development Corporation.
Bushveld Minerals Limited (LON:BMN), together with its subsidiaries, engages in the exploration and development of mineral projects in South Africa. It operates through three segments: Vanadium and Iron Ore, Coal Exploration, and Vanadium Mining and Production.
