Big batteries across Australia could one day be powered by a little-known element called vanadium and manufactured onshore, an industry leader says.
The silvery-grey metal is the latest “pit to grid” sensation for electricity system operators, although most people have never heard of it.
“Seven years ago lithium was in the same spot,” Australian Vanadium chief executive Graham Arvidson said ahead of a briefing on the element at the Diggers and Dealers Mining Forum in Kalgoorlie on Wednesday.
Most vanadium is used to make metal alloys, but it can also be used to make an increasingly popular kind of battery that may be the answer to storing energy for long periods to support solar and wind power generation.
Ferro-Alloy Resources Ltd (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.