Member Info for Lindon

February 14, 2023
The government of South Africa will soon issue a request for proposals (RFP) for 513MW of battery storage.

A tweet today from the official account for the ruling African National Congress, ANC Parliament, confirmed that the government would “…issue a request for proposal (RFP), consisting of: 513MW of battery storage by the end of February 2023”.

Mineral resources minister Gwede Mantashe said the same earlier in the week, adding it will be issued by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy and will seek the resources from independent power producers (IPPs). The department’s website said that grid operator Eskom would be the buyer of the stored energy.

The department is launching the RFP through its Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme, sometimes referred to as the IPP Office. The head of that, Bernard Magoro, told media at the end of January that it would seek to procure another 1,200MW of battery storage by the end of 2023.

https://www.energy-storage.news/south-africa-government-to-issue-rfp-for-513mw-of-battery-storage/

X Group Technologies Tweet 4/5/22
To more reliably demonstrate the new vanadium sulphate capability to an important primary producer, IPEX moved its IX pilot plant to one of the tolling services sites of ENVEX located in Mpumalanga, South Africa.

xgrouptechnology.com/post/2022-at-x…

#VRB #EnergyStorage #Vanadium

Wonder who the primary producer might be?

https://t.co/SL5q0WW9yv

Employees at Gideotech Investment Holdings

Pieter Gideo van der Merwe
Director at TAM Holdings Ltd

https://za.linkedin.com/company/tam-energy?trk=similar-pages

And Gideotech - which seems to be the holding company that seem to be behind it all:

https://za.linkedin.com/company/gideotech-investment-holdings

Yer! There’s the link between Envex and X group.

https://www.xgrouptechnology.com/envex-1

Yep, there’s another link to Witbank:

Covid-19 Update:
X GROUP Technologies resumed operations in Emalahleni on 28 April 2020 after one month of lockdown. The following measures were...

Another interesting SA link and expose on converting tailings recovery and conversion directly to Electrolyte

I wouldn't be surprised to find there’s a link between the huge Envex, the X group, TAM and BMN. They all have an interest in producing low cost electrolyte.

https://www.xgrouptechnology.com/news-blog

TAM is committed to cleaning up the environment and has subsequently invested in strategic mineral stockpiles.

?? Excellent location in South Africa mining belt.

?? Huge Mineral Stockpiles(Fe,Ti,V) in excess of 21Mt.

?? Potential expansion to more than 140 million Mt reserves.

?? Primary Products: Iron, Titanium & Vanadium.

The TAM Group has developed and licensed unique process technology for its projects and continues to develop new technology both in-house and with strategic partners.

The following processes have been developed or licensed:

?? TAMGIT (Innovative Smelting Technology)

?? TAMVAN (Vanadium Pentoxide Extraction)

?? REDVOX (Hydrometallurgical Processing)

… going on from those thoughts, I may be wrong but I don’t think the TAM project is gonna be a sort of technical based electrolyte chemical factory facility similar to our ELZ one. I’m thinking it’s a more likely to be a larger industrial type tailings recovery and processing operation.

We shall see.

Lional yep. That’s about it really. Just for the record and for general info:
Evraz Highveld Steel and Vanadium filed for bankruptcy protection in 2015 due to its high debt that could not be managed when steel prices dropped significantly. In 2017, Bushveld Minerals, an AIM-listed mineral project development company acquired Highveld’s Vanadium business (Vametco) based in Brits out of bankruptcy for a bargain price. The CEO of Bushveld Minerals, Fortune Mojapelo was quoted saying the purchase of $16.5 million was 10% less than the replacement value of Vametco and this enabled the deal to be debt-funded.

Bushveld Minerals followed with the second act by acquiring Vanchem in 2019, a vanadium processing facility based in Emalahleni.
Vanchem had also filed for bankruptcy protection in 2015 after Highveld closed its doors.

Highveld supplied vanadium feed-stock to Vanchem and when it closed down, Vanchem could not continue operating profitably from other sources of feed-stock and was forced to shut down.

Hi Lionel, I still,occasionally read my copy of your BigPicture for reference!

Just musings really, I found it interesting that TAM Energy is in the process of designing and building its plant & vanadium electrolyte facilities at the Highveld Industrial Park in Witbank South Africa. And we should see some more tangible results this year.

Witbank, of course is simply the Afrikaans name for Emalahleni.

Vanchem, address is Ferrobank Industrial Park in … Emalahleni Local Municipality at Mpumalanga Province,

I believe TAMS address is the old Evraz Highveld Steel and Vanadium site at Witbank? The question that struck me, (given BMN’s history with Evaraz!!!!) who owns those old tailings?

TAM is, I believe the company that reported a while back, that they had made a very major breakthrough in producing vanadium electrolyte from tailings at significantly cheaper costs. If that can be done in reasonable sized volumes/quantities, the benefit’s to BMN are obvious.

I think there is a possibility that they are in a close working partnership with BMN. We know of course, BMN do have a rather huge pile of tailings to play with!

It maybe nothing but something that maybe could also do with a tad more research?

@JP8891 … yep, and volumes were reckoned to be 1 MTV = 8 MT of Electrolyte. With 1 MW.h of energy storage using about 5 Metric Tonnes of Vanadium (MTV)

I think it was Vanitec that originally indicated a figure of 5.5 MTV was needed for electrolyte, but then later efficiencies had reduced that to between 4- 4.5 mtv. Probably best to assume a middle of the road 5mtv per 1MW.h

TAM Energy is in the process of designing and building its plant & vanadium electrolyte facilities at the Highveld Industrial Park in Witbank South Africa. Our first pilot batteries are expected for completion in the second quarter of 2022 with the support of our International IP Partners. Full commercial production is scheduled for late 2023.

Anybody here recognise that address?

https://tamholdings.co.za/the-coming-vanadium-battery-revolution/

Will … I don’t think even Alphacomp knows for sure, but his best guess from a couple of years ago of it being nearer to 4 is still worth more than anyone else’s. Imo. The only very recent thing that might point in a more accurate direction —- is FM’s narrative last week on the plants projected max volumes of V - compare that with the plants stated max volume of nectar and that seems to put it nearer to the 5.5 of V mark ( I think!). A big impact in all this tho, is something that I posted last week. It got buried under all the troll and click baiter responders posts (;as normal!)

IES have started the ball rolling to rent out the whole battery, not just the electrolyte- CellCube will almost certainly have to follow suit, if that’s the direction the VRFB industry is going to go.

That in turn will make a nonsense of any current assumptions, presumptions and guesses of how immediately lucrative the stuff is going to eventually be. It’s, imo, something of a game changer for the whole energy storage space. I’d didn’t merit a debate, far more interesting to this bb is the trolls and their click bait, oxygen feeders. Recent News about the company itself is now just a side line to opinions.

Yer … I certainly agree with that sentiment!

Much also depends on how much V is going to be required per mwH given many technical recent advances in the membranes and producing the stuff. There have been narratives that put it anywhere between 4mtV and 5.5mtv per mwH. My understanding is it could be nearer to nearer 4 than 5. If and when we get a signed and sealed order to supply electrolyte to someone’s BESS project, it would be normal to also get an indication of how much a total order is going to be worth to the company. Then maybe, the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth —- will out!

Well said Will. I’ve said before that this ramper does the company no favours whatsoever. It’s exactly this type of ridiculous and childish ramping that leaves FM having to fight to hold back the tide of expectations that this type of stupidity invokes.

It also unfortunately provides vast amounts of oxygen for the trolls to quite rightly ridicule and feed on. The company and its investors, and this bb, would be much better off without it.

President Ramaphosa has declared a national state of disaster to respond to the energy crisis and its effects.

https://mg.co.za/news/2023-02-09-live-updates-state-of-the-nation-address-2023/

Almost certainly that imposition is the exact reason for stopping the sales to China as from the start of last year. Asia sale prices may or may not have any relationship to quoted China spot prices.

I’ve received a message about an emailed reply from BMN IR. … BMN receive the vast majority of the purchase price for sales to the USA upfront from Wogan on the shipment date - the outstanding remainder is settled on landing. Inventory includes all product in transit, so the quoted cash figures (when they do quote! ) include whatever is in transit at the time.

Tue, 13th Sep 2022 07:00

RNS Number : 1888Z
Bushveld Minerals Limited

The geographic split of Group sales in H1 2022 was 45% to the United States (H1 2021: 47%), 27% to Europe (H1 2021: 29%), 10% South Africa (H1 2021: 7%), 9% to Asia (H1 2021: 6%), 9% to the rest of the world (H1 2021: 7%), no sales to China in H1 2022 (H1 2021: 4%).