Vanadium

In addition to its importance within the steel markets, vanadium is expected to experience a surge of new demand over the coming decade primarily originating from utility-scale battery storage, which in turn is directly tied to the exponential growth in renewable energy. "Vanadium is becoming more widely used in green technology applications, espec... ially in battery technology," said the U.S. Geological Survey in its 2018 report on critical minerals and metals. The reference relates to growing excitement around vanadium redox-flow battery technology, which potentially offers a grid-scale energy storage solution for electric utilities who require long duration storage. Because of the intermittent nature of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, long duration storage is a growing concern that will need to be addressed in order to facilitate a stable grid that could potentially become carbon free. Vanadium produces have enjoyed as spectacular few years in market cap growth as the price of vanadium has risen steadily. Well known vanadium producers include Largo Resources Ltd. (TSX: LGO) (OTCQX: LGORF), Bushveld Minerals Limited (LON: BMN) and Glencore PLC (LON: GLEN) (OTC: GLNCY). Energy Fuels Inc. (TSX: EFR) (NYSE AMERICAN: UUUU) also began producing vanadium in 2018 in reaction to rising spot prices. Even vanadium explorers have done well over the past few years in a tough mining sector, including the likes of First Vanadium Corp. (TSX.V: FVAN) (OTCQX: FVANF) and VanadiumCorp Resource Inc. (TSX.V: VRB) (FSE: NWWN). In 2018 the U.S. Department of the Interior released a list of 35 critical minerals, which included vanadium. Being that the U.S. government has no current stockpiles of vanadium, securing resources of this battery metal could become critical in the near future, making Prophecy's Gibellini deposit that much more vital to the domestic security of the United States and the global vanadium supply chain.Read More