The next focusIR Investor Webinar takes places on 14th May with guest speakers from Blue Whale Growth Fund, Taseko Mines, Kavango Resources and CQS Natural Resources fund. Please register here.
Every Friday, SAfm’s radio anchor Sakina Kamwendo speaks to Martin Creamer, publishing editor of Engineering News & Mining Weekly. Reported here is this Friday’s.
Worth a listen
https://www.miningweekly.com/article/on-the-air-03022023-2023-02-03
Excerpt
Kamwendo: And then finally, Martin 1000s of people expected to descend on South Africa next week. It's that time again, it's time for the mining Indaba.
Creamer: There is going to be a keynote address by the President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa. He is bringing with him eight cabinet ministers, three deputy cabinet ministers, so they are taking it seriously. I think they should do, because often we get down to the Mining Indaba and all we see are people from Ghana and DRC and all over Africa. And then of course, the Canadians and the Australians and the people listed in London come flying in and we don't see any deals with South Africa because we haven't got exploration activities.
Now, we are going to hear a lot about exploration from our geoscience body, which has got a lot of communication planned. We see already cabinet ministers being called to sit meetings to get big insight. And I think it's a good time to get our mineral energy complex going. We have got so much that we can do. They are just saying now with Mpumalanga, that they want to use vanadium for the storage of 800 megawatt hours of power out there. You can't get lithium, because it is just in such demand for these batteries and many are now looking to go the vanadium route. Of course, we have got so much vanadium here, which will be great for us and we see that Bushveld Minerals already starting to make the vanadium batteries in East London.
EXXARO AND SERITI RESOURCES JOIN FORCES WITH ESKOM IN REALISING A JUST ENERGY TRANSITION TO A LOW CARBON FUTURE IN SOUTH AFRICA
https://seritiza.com/news-media/announcements/2021/exxaro-seriti-eskom-realising-transition-to-low-carbon-
25 October 2021: Eskom, Exxaro and Seriti Resources have announced the signing of a landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that spells out their intention to pursue, co-operatively and individually, the development of renewable energy projects to lower their carbon footprint at their operations. In doing so, the parties aim to create employment and re-skilling opportunities for communities living and working at and around their operations, and to take a step towards a just transition to a low carbon future in South Africa.
Seriti Green is a subsidiary of Seriti Resources
https://seritigreen.com
https://seritiza.com
Cennergi is a subsidiary of Exxaro Resources
https://cennergi.com/
https://www.exxaro.com/
https://www.miningweekly.com/article/seriti-green-raises-need-for-africa-to-appraise-vanadium-as-electricity-storage-battery-metal-2023-02-03
https://seritigreen.com
Tin prices have broken through $30,250/t as Chinese traders buy physical stocks
https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/1004660/today-s-market-view-atlantic-lithium-celsius-resources-empire-metals-and-more-1004660.html
Tin prices have moved significantly higher in recent weeks as traders moved to secure stocks of available metal.
Chinese imports of refined tin rose dramatically last year as the nation appears to be restocking supply.
Electric Vehicle and solar panel production are strong drivers for tin demand, particularly in China where the government continues to encourage growth.
The ITA estimate the Solar industry consumed >22,000t last year.
Electric vehicles use around three times the tin of a conventional vehicle at around 1.2kg vs 0.4kg per vehicle.
The CPC, Chinese Communist Party, aims to turn Chinese industry towards more technological and advanced manufacturing indicating greater demand for tin for circuit boards.
The suspension of the San Raphael mine in Peru due to social unrest has cut available supply.
Sanctions and unrest in Myanmar may also hamper tin concentrate shipments into China.
Chinese smelting capacity is likely to have been hit by the extended Lunar new year shutdowns.
Indonesia is proposing to ban the export of tin ingots to encourage the development of manufacturing in country.
Indonesia only consumes 5% of its tin production and the hard-line government is not pulling its punches when it comes to banning exports to encourage inward investment.
https://energy.mit.edu/news/flow-batteries-for-grid-scale-energy-storage/
Mikhail’s thoughts posted on LinkedIn regarding the above article.
This is an interesting summary of some work at MIT to compare different types of flow battery technologies. In particular, it looked at implications of potential new flow battery chemistries and to what degree they could challenge vanadium-based flow batteries.
Here are some key points:
1) We often forget the technical reasons for why vanadium is the only chemistry that is proven to work extensively. Vanadium-based flow batteries "addresses the two major challenges with flow batteries. First, vanadium doesn’t degrade...And second, if some of the vanadium in one tank flows through the membrane to the other side, there is no permanent cross-contamination of the electrolytes, only a shift in the oxidation states, which is easily remediated by rebalancing the electrolyte volumes and restoring the oxidation state via a minor charge step."
2) The only reason other chemistries are pursued is because the cost of the electrolyte could be cheaper. However, the writers note that "while other chemistries may offer lower initial capital costs, they may be more expensive to operate over time." There is a lot of analysis of how much cheaper the non-vanadium needs to be to make the overall battery operating costs lower. The required range is 10-20 times cheaper.
3) The researches do not opine whether another flow battery technology (if it works) could ever compete with a vanadium one. In reading between the lines and assessing how much needs to go right for another flow battery technology supply chain, including electrolyte costing $10-20/kWh, it seems unlikely that there will be a flow battery cheaper than a VRFB on a total cost of ownership basis.
Frank from Bushveld Energy speaking on Wed 23rd Nov 22 about the progress on the Vametco PV & Battery storage project & the Vanchem options with Battery storage.
‘Power and Mining: Anticipating storage’
https://youtu.be/wSWaR1SKnaU?t=2048
https://twitter.com/cellcube/status/1605553228283682824?s=20&t=0_gjg-caYEeBff1UWVh9rQ
https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/ipp-office-to-launch-513-mw-battery-storage-auction-soon-2023-01-25
The Independent Power Producer (IPP) Office has confirmed it will soon launch a bid window round for 513 MW of battery storage capacity and hopes to procure another 1 200 MW later this year.
IPP Office head Bernard Magoro confirmed during a webinar hosted by Creamer Media and titled 'South Africa’s Energy Outlook for 2023', that the country could see a total 1 700 MW of battery storage procured in 2023.?
Webinar Clip from earlier today.
https://youtu.be/Hv-NmRkwEGU?t=4519
https://www.ipp-storage.co.za
Currently waiting on NERSA for their recommendation & the RFD (Reason for Decision).
NERSA
Meeting this Thursday 1st December
Item 8
‘RFD on concurrence with 14791 Renewables & STORAGE S34 determination’
https://y8p4j9m8.stackpathcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Agenda-Electricity-Subcommittee-Meeting-No.-199-of-1-December-2022.pdf
https://www.bushveldminerals.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Bushveld-Minerals-Annual-Report-Financial-Results-2021_final.pdf
Page 45
Electrolyte manufacturing
Bushveld Electrolyte Company “BELCO” is located in East London, South Africa, established in 2020, with 55 per cent ownership by Bushveld Energy and 45 per cent by the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC). With a targeted initial capacity of 8 million litres of vanadium electrolyte (using up to 1,100 tons of pentoxide equivalent) and capability to scale up to 32 million litres at the same location, the electrolyte plant is the largest publicly announced plant outside of China.
https://www.cellcube.com/australia-one-step-closer-to-24-7-green-power-supply-with-north-harbour-clean-energy-and-cellcube-plans-for-vanadium-redox-flow-battery-manufacturing-facility-and-purchase-of-4mw-16mwh-vrfb-lighthou-2/
https://twitter.com/cellcube/status/1595542109498515462?s=61&t=cCdbULtG1Nvpix11vXqSIg
Good progress at #Belco, the @BushveldMin_Ltd electrolyte plant. Exciting times for local Vanadium benefication and local content for SA VRFB BESS's!
https://twitter.com/solarboygenius/status/1595433960175198210?s=61&t=4rHo7wsjEXJfHWWEYfNMbw
https://www.energy-storage.news/south-korean-flow-battery-maker-h2-building-330mwh-factory/
In October last year, H2 raised US$15 million in a Series B funding round, bringing its total funding raised to US$38 million.
Then, in December, the company announced that it is building a 5MW/20MWh project in California, which by megawatt-hours would be the biggest VRFB project in the US to date – although bigger projects are planned to supersede it.
The US’ current largest vanadium flow battery project, also in California, is a 2MW/8MWh demonstration project in the service area of utility SDG&E. In fact, as the first US state to introduce legislation to support LDES deployment, California appears likely to be the first major market in the country for VRFBs and other LDES technologies.
A community energy organisation, Central Coast Community Energy is contracting for three flow battery projects including one of 16MW/128MWh, expected to be operational in 2026.
ESS Inc, a manufacturer of flow batteries using a different electrolyte based on iron and saltwater as opposed to vanadium, recently scored a deal with California energy supplier SMUD for up to 200MW/2GWh of its systems.
On a related note, the California Energy Commission (CEC) just made its first payout from a US$380 million fund to support LDES, committing US$31 million funding for a microgrid project that will pair a 1MW/10MWh VRFB with a 35MWh zinc hybrid cathode battery storage system.
Shin Han of H2 said the company’s California project will be “the first noteworthy” VRFB system manufactured at the Gyeryong-si plant.
The CEO added that an important part of H2 Inc’s strategy is to market VRFBs as a fire-safe alternative to lithium-ion batteries, referring to 37 documented fires at Korean battery storage facilities within the past five years.
H2 Inc’s is the latest in a series of vanadium flow battery factory announcements, as well as announcements around raw materials extraction and processing and electrolyte manufacturing to feed those factories.
Most recently, plans for a possible VRFB gigafactory in Saudi Arabia were revealed by Indian flow battery company Delectrik and its Saudi partner, Tdafoq earlier this month. In October, Japanese energy company Idemitsu invested into a vanadium extraction plant in Australia, with various entities looking to establish extraction, electrolyte production and manufacturing capabilities in the country.
Access to vanadium and electrolyte to make finished products with may be the key limiting factor for VRFBs once market demand picks up.
https://iono.fm/e/1243386
In this edition of Podcasts from the Edge, Peter Bruce talks to Frank Spencer, head of deployment at Bushveld Energy, a subsidiary of Bushveld Mining, which is listed in London.
Bushveld is building a plant near East London to make electrolytes for its vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB). Spencer says a plentiful supply of vanadium in South Africa shouldn’t be overlooked as the rest of the world rushes into lithium ion batteries. The VRFB lasts way longer and doesn’t catch fire – and we can build it here.
To prove it, Bushveld is not only making electrolytes in East London, it is building a 3MW solar plant at its mine near Brits in North West to feed a new 1MWh battery, a demonstration VRFB, to show potential new clients.
If Bushveld gets it right, towns and cities could go the direct battery route and get Eskom to charge them when it is not load-shedding. It’s a new option. Different, and local.
https://www.businesslive.co.za/fm/fm-fox/2022-10-25-podcast-big-batteries-heres-a-way-to-do-it-our-way/
UK legislators have been urged to back draft legislative proposals that could see lithium ion battery storage sites designated as “hazardous” — and subject to tough new fire safety and planning controls.
https://www.energystoragejournal.com/uk-bid-to-tighten-laws-for-hazardous-lithium-bess-sites/
Lithium-Ion Battery Storage (Fire Safety and Environmental Permits)
Bill Debated in Parliament September 2022
https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2022-09-07/debates/FB0D6FE6-CF3E-4D2B-AA92-FCAE0A5B0B17/Lithium-IonBatteryStorage(FireSafetyAndEnvironmentalPermits)
https://twitter.com/iitmenergyconso/status/1564516414069022720?s=21&t=JkNLHgkP2KoKYWkRVGLkmA
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/progressing-towards-energy-efficient-vanadium-redox-iit-madras
https://acfequityresearch.com/vrfb-vanadium-miners-a-winning-combination/
https://youtu.be/vUBOrsI1vAA
Presentation
https://afritinmining.com/company-presentations/2022-08-18-ATM%20-Lithium-Webinar.pdf