The latest Investing Matters Podcast episode featuring financial educator and author Jared Dillian has been released. Listen here.
https://resourceglobalnetwork.com/portfolio_page/bushveldminerals-2
“Research from Navigant forecasts that the size of the energy storage market will reach US$50 billion within the next 10 years, which represents a growth rate of 58% a year to exceed 100GWh of capacity by 2027.
“While multiple technologies are expected to be successful due to their unique technical and cost advantages and suitability to local conditions, Navigant expects flow batteries to capture approximately 18% of the market, which equates to approximately 20GWh of demand and nearly $10 billion in revenue in the coming decade.
“In addition, approximately 5.5 tonnes of vanadium is used for per MWh, which means that in 2027 vanadium use in VRFBs could be between 50 and 80,000 mtV.”
Bushveld is well positioned to capitalise on this huge projected vanadium demand from the VRFB sector thanks to its globally significant resource base of 550 million tonnes (100% basis) grading 1.58-2.0% V205 in magnetite and its low cost, flexible and scalable primary vanadium processing facilities at Vametco and Vanchem.
“Bushveld’s vertical integration strategy and synergies across its assets provide flexibility for the group to deliver on the entire vanadium value suite by being able to produce various vanadium feedstocks that can be converted into electrolytes for VRFBs.”
Ninvestor, if Myles says he is building his position here I believe him, he isn’t looking for 7, 10 or even 100 percent, he’ll want a lot more. Myles is well known to many here, he is on good terms with Fortune after writing a piece a few years ago about Bushveld when working as a analyst for Allenby Capital. Myles probably knows BMN as well as anyone and I’m happy that he is increasing his holding here, it would worry me if he wasn’t doing so.
I bought some of these a couple of days ago on the back of Richard Evans from the Telegraph’s WhatsApp group which he followed up with a bullish audio briefing later in the day. I’m not a trader and generally only buy companies that I want to hold long term that have excellent management.
JD impresses me and the outlook here is very good indeed.
https://download.resource-capital.ch/fileadmin/reports/2020/2/2_en__BMR_2020_Update.pdf
The price of vanadium will continue to rise, since the current production is needed for steel production alone
Vanadium therefore has one advantage: the current vanadium production is almost entirely used for the production of steel alloys. The expected demand from the storage technology sector cannot be met at the mo- ment. The expected exponential development of demand from this new area of appli- cation will therefore immediately lead to a shortage in the supply of vanadium, which can already be seen from the constantly ri- sing vanadium price. On the other hand, only few or no new vanadium mines can be put into operation at present. If so, vanadium can only be increasingly extracted from old tailings piles, for example from uranium mi- nes, within the next 2 to 3 years. There will clearly be a need for new primary mined vanadium capacity in the future, which histori- cally has always been a major challenge and cannot be achieved within 2 or 3 years. Vana- dium will thus become a boom element that has been relatively unnoticed to date, because one thing is certain: decentralized storage of excess energy will become THE decisive issue in the future when it comes to the ques- tion of where base loadable energy for „filling up“ millions of electric vehicles will come from.
Conclusion: The electric revolution is just starting to take off and will lead to a long-lasting boom in lithium, cobalt, nickel and vanadium! – The corona crisis will bring forward the time of supply shortage by several years!
The company notes that many manu- facturers are trying out efficient vanadium redox batteries, which are to be used pri- marily on a decentralised basis, such as directly in households that use a photo- voltaic system on their roof or near wind farms.
The 2020s will thus be a landmark decade for battery development, renewable energy integration with storage systems and a decade in which EVs and hybrids gain signifi- cant traction in the market.
Swiss Resource Capital highlights that decentralised storage facilities will dominate the market in the future, with a keen eye on vanadium redox batteries.
According to its report, this type of battery is better suited to use in the renewable-energy sector, as opposed to the use of lithium, cobalt and nickel in lithium-ion batteries or accumulators in smaller applications such as automotive or personal electronic products.
The “virtually explosive” expansion of energy generation from wind farms and solar photovoltaic has, however, presented a significant challenge for power grids, as renewable-energy sources often produce extreme fluctuations in power generation, depending on the availability of sun and wind.
Swiss Resource Capital says this results in an oversupply of electricity in the short term, with up to 20% of the yearly wind power yield being lost as a result of turbines having to be shut down at short notice, owing to grid overload.
This can be remedied by storage facili- ties that initially absorb the surplus energy and later release it back into the grid when needed.
Swiss Resource Capital posits that the vanadium redox accumulator, in particular, plays a decisive role in this regard, as it has a higher operational reliability than the lithium-ion battery.
The vanadium redox accumulator is a so-called flux accumulator, which uses vanadium compounds in aqueous solutions in both electrolytes. Vanadium redox flow cells offer a very high degree of operational safety, compared with other storage systems, as the electrolyte is neither flammable nor explosive, owing to its high water content.
The commercial batteries currently avail- able are used exclusively for stationary applications, such as regenerative energy sources to cover peak loads and load balancing, as well as for uninterruptible power supplies.
By the end of 2019, Swiss Resource Capital reports that more than 80 large vanadium redox flow batteries were in operation worldwide.
The largest vanadium redox flow battery, with a capacity of 2 MW and 20 MW/h energy
storage capacity, was completed in September 2019 in Baden-WĂĽrttemberg, in Germany.
The largest battery in the world, still under development, will also be a vanadium redox flow battery, with a capacity of 200 MW and an energy storage capacity of 800 MW/h, in north-east China.
The largest future application area for vanadium redox batteries is decentralised energy storage and smart grid systems requiring a large number of short- and medium-term energy storage devices that can absorb surplus energy and later, when there is no wind or sun, release it back into the grid, according to Swiss Resource Capital.
“Vanadium redox batteries can clearly provide a remedy here by temporarily storing the over-generated energy and releasing it back into the grid only when needed.”
Ideally, Bushveld would have bid for the tender themselves but battery manufacture in SA is a little down the line for us. Enerox have the history and experience, deployment of previous products and according to some the most advanced vanadium battery product.
Which would be better. Win the contract as a consortium or fail as we went alone. Bushveld Energy don’t even fit the criteria to bid by themselves.
MadasaHat, I posted about this yesterday. If you read below fully, it talks about the Vametco EIA at the bottom.
Looks like it was mentioned in the Q2 2018 update.
https://www.londonstockexchange.com/news-article/BMN/bushveld-energy-q2-operating-update/13713045?lang=en
Vanadium electrolyte production facility:
· Bushveld Energy awarded the contract to perform an Environmental Impact Assessment ("EIA") to a South African consultancy for the greenfield facility in the East London Industrial Development Zone ("ELIDZ");
· Based on recommendations from the consultant, a full EIA will be performed, rather than a basic assessment as originally envisaged;
· The EIA will cover both the initial 200MWh capacity for the plant and allow for future production expansion;
· While this will require up to three months for community engagement and other processes, the long-term benefit will be the ability to increase capacity without securing another EIA;
· An EIA is also required for the chemicals plant that will be co-located with Bushveld's existing mining and processing facility at the Vametco vanadium mine. This application will be combined with Vametco's overall expansion application and thus not add any additional time or cost to Vametco's EIA process, highlighting an example of the synergies of vertical integration in Bushveld's business model; and
· The project remains on track to produce electrolyte in 2019 for South African and international markets.
Looks like it was mentioned in the Q2 2018 update.
https://www.londonstockexchange.com/news-article/BMN/bushveld-energy-q2-operating-update/13713045?lang=en
Vanadium electrolyte production facility:
· Bushveld Energy awarded the contract to perform an Environmental Impact Assessment ("EIA") to a South African consultancy for the greenfield facility in the East London Industrial Development Zone ("ELIDZ");
· Based on recommendations from the consultant, a full EIA will be performed, rather than a basic assessment as originally envisaged;
· The EIA will cover both the initial 200MWh capacity for the plant and allow for future production expansion;
· While this will require up to three months for community engagement and other processes, the long-term benefit will be the ability to increase capacity without securing another EIA;
· An EIA is also required for the chemicals plant that will be co-located with Bushveld's existing mining and processing facility at the Vametco vanadium mine. This application will be combined with Vametco's overall expansion application and thus not add any additional time or cost to Vametco's EIA process, highlighting an example of the synergies of vertical integration in Bushveld's business model; and
· The project remains on track to produce electrolyte in 2019 for South African and international markets.
https://twitter.com/bigbitenow/status/1295681141614227456?s=21
One way or another the vanadium cycle will turn north again, be it driven by steel, VRFBs or both.
Nobody is better placed in the vanadium industry to take advantage of the opportunity, than #BMN.
Its simply a matter of time.