Mick Davis has had a singular career. Firstly, there’s the knighthood, awarded in 2015 for his efforts in Holocaust commemoration and education. Then there’s the three-year stint as treasurer and then CEO of the UK’s Conservative Party, under the leadership of then prime minister, Theresa May.
But for the most part it is as a mining tycoon – ‘Mick the Miner’ – as the City once dubbed him – that Davis is renowned. The last three years have been among his quietest following the 2017 closure of X2 Resources, the $6bn privately backed fund. This year, however, marks his return as chairman of Vision Blue Resources (VBR), a company initially backed by $60m in private funds.
VBR has invested $12.6m in Ferro-Alloy Resources Group with a view to expanding a vanadium project in Kazakhstan. Previously a steel-strengthening agent, vanadium is now being used in new ways, including for large-scale power storage.
Ferro-Alloy Resources Limited (LON:FAR) is developing the giant Balasausqandiq vanadium deposit in Kyzylordinskaya oblast of southern Kazakhstan. The ore at this deposit is unlike that of nearly all other primary vanadium deposits and is capable of being treated by a much lower cost process.
