RE: Bushveld Facts!4 Jan 2020 12:20
In 2019, the most challenging aspect of the sector continued to be the historically volatile market price of vanadium, which unfortunately is what controls the share prices of most publicly traded vanadium companies, according to VanadiumCorp (TSXV:VRB,OTC Pink:APAFF) CEO Adrian Bakker.
“As such there is no business case for vanadium batteries if resources remain few and far between, controlled by the Chinese and predicated on outdated pollutive and inefficient methods of extraction.”
“Because the primary use of vanadium is in steel manufacturing there is a close correlation with steel production volumes,” he said. “However, we anticipate that secondary demand from vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFB) will increasingly impact global vanadium volume.”
“The vanadium supply is relatively inelastic at this time, with most of the vanadium supplied by China, South Africa, Russia and Brazil,” he said. “Reported stockpiles are dwindling and attempts to increase production from these sources has met challenges.”
In addition, niobium substitution presents challenges as its supply is even more inelastic than vanadium’s. Only three countries in the world produce the metal, whose total output stands at 68,000 metric tons produced annually, according to the US Geological Survey. Brazil accounts for 88 percent of global output.
SP Angel forecasts that VRFB demand in Southern Africa alone could consume over 5 percent of global vanadium production over the next few years, creating significant new demand in a market where supply is relatively consistent.
“If this trend is repeated in the US, China and Europe, then we can see new demand for vanadium easily outstripping supply in future years, with grid developers queuing to secure available vanadium electrolyte supply,” Meyer added.
Lots of 'VanadiumCorp' .. not one mention of Bushveld !
Sign In
Follow the stocks
