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https://www.thecitizen.co.tz/news/africa/South-Africa-extends-coronavirus-lockdown-as-increase/3302426-5519842-tvyik9z/index.html

https://www.techexplorist.com/physicists-observed-evidence-majorana-fermions/31520/

https://www.powderbulksolids.com/news/TFF-Pharmaceuticals-UGA-Collaborate-on-Flu-Vaccine-04-09-2020

https://www.powderbulksolids.com/news/TFF-Pharmaceuticals-UGA-Collaborate-on-Flu-Vaccine-04-09-2020

https://www.businessnews.com.au/article/Neometals-levers-vanadium-processing-tech-in-new-alliance

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/what-to-know-about-mutation-and-covid-19#What-this-means-for-a-vaccine

From the same website.

https://fortune.com/2020/02/29/coronavirus-covid-19-flu-vaccine/

Bushveld Minerals stops mining
Bushveld Minerals confirmed on Wednesday it would stop mining in response to the lockdown order. Bushveld owns Vametco and Vanchem operations, which will be put on care and maintenance. Bushveld Minerals currently produces approximately 3,000 tonnes per year of vanadium, Fastmarkets understands.
Two South African manganese miners declare force majeure
Two major South African manganese miners, United Manganese of Kalahari and Assmang declared force majeure on manganese shipments on Wednesday. UMK produces about 3 million tpy manganese ore, while Assmang produced 1.78 million tonnes in the first half of its 2020 financial year.
Afarak works on plan for its operations
Helsinki and London-listed Afarak confirmed its South African chrome-producing operation, Mogale Alloys, was affected by the country’s government-imposed lockdown, adding that a plan is in development. Mogale normally produces 110,000 tpy of ferro-chrome and continued to produce 4,000 tonnes per month of plasma charge chrome and 1,400 tpm of medium carbon ferro-chrome after idling furnaces earlier this year.

Samancor produces about 3 million tonnes per year of chrome ore, according to its website and it has capacity for over 2 million tpy of ferro-chrome production following a series of acquisitions of smaller rivals in recent years. It announced in January plans to reduce annual chrome ore production by 29% and ferro-chrome production by 20% amid poor market conditions.
South Africa's largest manganese miner declares force majeure
Miner Tshipi e Ntle declared force majeure on manganese shipments on Thursday. Its owner, Jupiter Mines, also confirmed on Friday that operations and exports have been suspended for the period of the lockdown. Tshipi sold 3.5 million tonnes of manganese ore in its 2019 full financial year and become the country's largest miner by export volume in 2017.
Tharisa declares force majeure
Chrome and platinum producer Tharisa declared force majeure on contracted chrome concentrate sales agreements on Thursday. The miner had already confirmed on Tuesday it would cease mining and place its operation on care and maintenance. Tharisa recorded chrome concentrate production of 342,500 tonnes for the three months to December 31, 2019, including 81,500 tonnes of specialty grade chrome concentrate production.
Transnet closes bulk terminal to minerals
South African state transport operator Transnet closed bulk terminals to minerals shipments on Thursday, after announcing it would do so on Tuesday. Essential commodities including grains, soya bean meal, fertilizer and wood chips are exempt from the restrictions, Transnet said.
Shutdown indirectly affects security of cobalt raw materials supply
As much as 70% of the world’s cobalt supply comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and much of that reaches South Africa for shipment out of Durban. The lockdown is forcing cobalt raw materials suppliers to either look at alternative ports with a connection to the DRC, or sit it out in the hope the lockdown is short-lived. Ahead of its implementation, there was already concern over the status of March and April shipments, with sellers prioritizing long-term obligations over additional spot inquiry.
“Durban has been cut to a skeleton crew, so there are personnel constraints that means you’ll be competing for discharging berths and loading capabilities, which have been cut down. Exports are competing with essential [medical] imports, and for warehousing time, so even if you can get a shipment, you might get bumped off,” one supplier source said.
Glencore puts its vanadium operations on care and maintenance
Glencore announced on Wednesday it was placing its vanadium operation in South Africa on care and maintenance in response to the lockdown. Glencore operates Rhovan, an open-cast mine and smelter complex located in Brits, which mainly produces ferro-vanadium and vanadium pentoxide.
In 2019, Glencore produced 20.2 million lb of vanadium pentoxide from its own sources.
Glencore puts its chrome operation on care and maintenance

https://www.metalbulletin.com/Article/3925539/Latest-news/SOUTH-AFRICA-LOCKDOWN-How-Covid-19-is-affecting-ores-and-alloys-supply-%5BUPDATED%5D.html

Fastmarkets reviews the latest developments in South African ores and alloys supply following the lockdown order from President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday March 23 amid the spread of Covid-19.

Mines and smelters across the country were ordered to shut down by midnight on March 26.
Manganese ore prices soar as much as 14% on supply concerns
Fastmarkets’ manganese ore index 37% Mn, cif Tianjin jumped to $4.58 per dry metric tonne unit (dmtu) on Friday April 3 from $4.01 per dmtu on March 27.
Rising concern over supply among buyers in China, which pushed up Chinese port prices, primarily drove the surge, while South African miners held back amid the uncertainty and restrictions.
South Africa supply concerns push vanadium prices up
Supply concerns amid South Africa’s lockdown has pushed vanadium prices up after Glencore and Bushveld Minerals put their vanadium operations there on care and maintenance. The alloy price moved up to $23-24.95 per kg on Friday April 3, up 5% from the mid-week assessment of $22-23.65 per kg in an active spot market.
The vanadium pentoxide price moved up 2.7% to $5.20-6.25 per lb on Friday April 3 from the assessment of $5.05-6.10 per lb the week before, with buyers struggling to find cheap prompt units and rising worries over future availability of material, market sources said.
“Vanadium is tense due to South African closures,” a buyer in Europe said.
“On the V2O5 supply side, there's China that's waking up after a long sleep and doesn't know where things are in the country,” the buyer said. “Outside of China, with South Africa out, only Brazil is left as a significant player, which means a big supply shock for the market.”

Merafe provides update, reveals delayed ferro-chrome benchmark
Merafe Resources, the chrome joint venture partner of Glencore in South Africa, revealed that the second-quarter charge and high-carbon ferro-chrome benchmark remains under review.
The company, which co-operates the Glencore-Merafe Chrome Venture with the trader-miner, said all its South African assets are on care and maintenance and it will declare force majeure if it becomes unable to perform on contractual obligations.
Exporters from SA warn of practical barriers amid conflicting rules
Exporters of minor metals, ore and alloys from South Africa have warned that regardless of conflicting rules on which minerals can be shipped, there are practical reasons why such exports are unrealistic.
Large miners have declared force majeure and put assets on care and maintenance due to the 21-day government-imposed lockdown because that means, for example, there is no transport to the ports or for staff to get to work.
Samancor calls force majeure
Samancor Chrome has sent a force majeure notice to its customers after South Africa entered a government-imposed lockdown in response to t

The development of large-scale primary vanadium projects such as Gabaninthais essential to bridge the demand-supply gap.

Technology Metals Advancing the World’s Largest Primary Vanadium Project

The Gabanintha Vanadium Project (GVP) located almost 40 kilometres south of Meekatharain Western Australia is being developed by Subiaco-based mineral explorer & developer, Technology Metals Australia Limited (ASX:TMT).

The project has an initial LoM (life of mine) of over 16 years and extensive opportunities for economic life extension with one of the lowest cash cost of US$4.04/lb V2O5. GVP is expected to produce 12,800 tonnes of V2O5 a year with high purity of over 99%, making it suitable for all major applications.
At present, Technology Metals is negotiating with Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF), a $5 billion facility set up as an initiative of the Australian Federal Government, to secure financial support to progress the development of the globally significant large-scale, low-cost, long-life project. A general meeting of the Company has been scheduled for 4 May 2020, from which several important decisions can be expected.

Meanwhile, TMT is progressing on securing environmental clearances for the vanadium project and expects to initiate the FEED (Front End Engineering Design) study on the GVP.

Gabanintha Vanadium Project - Technology Metals’ Shining Armour: Read Here

TMT closed at $0.065 on 1 April 2020, with a market capitalisation of $6.95 million.

With surge in demand for vanadium, the demand-supply gap is anticipated to widen and require large-scale, long-life vanadium projects such as Technology Metals’ Gabanintha. The world’s largest single primary vanadium producer, GVP, once developed, is expected to play a key role in meeting the global energy storage demand.

https://kalkinemedia.com/au/technology-metals-australia-ltd-asx-tmt/solving-worlds-energy-storage-puzzle-technology-metals-gabanintha-vanadium-project

Are electric vehicles green? This was one of the most quizzed questions of the last decade.

We say electric vehicles are green as long as power at the charging point comes from a renewable power source or else, we would end up transferring emissions from the transportation sector to the power generation sector.

The EV or electric vehicle is probably the most trending word we have come across but why not a cleaner power solution for domestic sectors or for industrial sectors that consume even larger energy.

Yes, that’s happening. The long-term power producers are switching to renewable power stations with decrease of per unit cost of energy generation.

However, renewable energy needs to be stored to flexibly cater to the increased demand during different time intervals and when the renewable power station doesn’t operate such as in the absence of sunlight or wind for solar or wind power plants, respectively. Consequently, the energy storage industry and power players seek viable options for the storage of renewable energy on large scales, enough to provide electricity to an entire city.

Batteries used in consumer electronics or even EVs contain elements such as lithium and cobalt, which are not abundant in nature and are also expensive, making this solution more unviable.These mega batteries must be scalable and long life with the ability to charge again and again.

TMT Developing World’s Largest Primary Vanadium Project –Gabanintha: Must Read

Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries- The Solution to Energy Storage Puzzle

One solution that the world is seeking is Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries (VRFB). In fact, China is already developing a 200MW/800MWh vanadium flow battery in Dalian, using ~6,960 tonnes V2O5 and it is also expected to become the world’s largest battery.

Vanadium batteries have long lifetime of up to 20,000 cycles, which is much more than a conventional lithium ion battery. The vanadium redox flow batteries also register minimal degradation in activity in the first 20 years of operation and offers huge scalability such as Dalian’s battery of 200 MW at a competitive cost. Vanadium ions in different oxidation states are used to store electrical energy, and ions change colour with the change in oxidation state.

Technology Metals’ GVP in Tier 1 Mining Jurisdiction of Western Australia: Read Here

The steel industry accounts for the lion’s share of the vanadium demand. And, vanadium nitrogen demand continues to surge, with an upsurge especially from the Chinese rebar, batteries and alloy sectors. Almost 50% spike in demand for vanadium from China, anticipated to account from the implementation of the Chinese rebar standard, to up to 15,000 tonnes per year.

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https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2020-03-27/south-african-lockdown-prompts-eskom-to-scale-back-workforce?__twitter_impression=true

The electricity procured from IPPs by the department in terms of the draft S34 determinations may only be sold to Eskom as the designated buyer of the electricity, in accordance with power purchase agreements (PPAs) concluded in the course of the procurement programmes.

Recent statements by the ministers of public enterprises and minerals and energy have indicated that Eskom should not be excluded from building, owning and operating new renewable energy generation capacity. However, the draft Section 34 determinations indicate that all new generation capacity up to 2027 – wind, solar, energy storage, gas and coal-fired – will come from IPPs. None of the new generation capacity will come from Eskom itself.

This is a big shift from the current Eskom monopoly, towards a more diversified electricity supply industry. It also represents a significant diversification away from South Africa’s over-dependence on coal as primary energy for power generation, which stands at about 80% of the total electricity generated in South Africa.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-03-23-power-shift-draft-ministerial-determinations-propose-13813-mw-of-new-build-by-ipps-none-by-eskom/amp/

South Africa’s national energy regulator on Friday published two draft determinations by Minerals and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe in terms of Section 34 (1) of the Electricity Regulation Act.

The first draft S34 determination relates to the procurement of 2,000 MW of new generation capacity between 2019 and 2022, and the second draft S34 determination to the procurement of a further 11,813 MW between 2022 and 2027.

These draft S34 determinations begin the procurement process after the gazetting of the South African national integrated resource plan for electricity, IRP 2019 on 18 November 2019. The determinations were submitted to Nersa by the minister on 21 February 2020 for “concurrence” by the energy regulator and published on Friday 20 March 2020.

A high court judgment in April 2017 ruled that in terms of the Electricity Regulation Act and the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act (PAJA), Nersa is required to concur with the draft determinations following a public consultation process before they become final and are gazetted.

The public consultation process began after Nersa published two consultation papers on 18 March 2020. These call for public comment and input on the two draft S34 determinations issued by Minister Mantashe, by 14 April 2020 and 7 May 2020 respectively.

Despite the current electricity supply emergency, which has resulted in up to Stage 6 (6,000 MW) load shedding in South Africa, Nersa has indicated that now, more than a month since receiving the draft S34 determinations, it will require a further three months to concur with the first S34 determination, and six months for the second.

Nersa does not seem to have got the message from Minister Mantashe when he said recently:

“Officials in the department are used to working according to rules, where it takes three months to do this, or six months to do that. The situation we are in requires a change of approach. That’s why we are engaging with Nersa and everybody to say: Guys, let’s accelerate processes, because if we don’t, we are going to be plunged into darkness.”

The Department of Minerals and Energy and Nersa are coming under increasing pressure and criticism for the snail’s pace of their bureaucratic processes and decisions. The energy regulator refutes this criticism and says that “Nersa is cognisant of the urgency of the request [for concurrence] as evidenced by the proposed fast-tracked concurrence process in the consultation papers”.

The draft S34 determinations indicate that electricity produced from the new generation capacity will be procured from IPPs “through one or more tendering procedures which are fair, transparent, competitive and cost-effective”

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/finance.yahoo.com/amphtml/news/largo-resources-reports-record-production-215500329.html

Q4 2019 Highlights

Production of 3,011 (6.6 million lbs1) tonnes of V2O5 in Q4 2019, a 16% increase over Q4 2018

Record monthly V2O5 production of 1,162 tonnes in December 2019

Cash operating costs excluding royalties2 of US$2.48 ($3.28) per lb V2O5, a decrease of 29% over Q4 2018

Revenues of $34.1 million in Q4 2019 (net of the re-measurement of trade receivables / payables of $13.5 million on vanadium sales from a contract with a customer of $47.6 million )

Full Year 2019 Highlights

Record FY 2019 production, achieving midpoint production guidance: 10,577 tonnes (23.3 million lbs1) of V2O5 produced in 2019, an increase of 8% over FY 2018

Cash operating costs excluding royalties2 of US$2.95 ($3.92) per lb V2O5, 12% lower than 2019 cost guidance; 13% lower than 2018

Revenues of $140.0 million in FY 2019 (net of the re-measurement of trade receivables / payables of $137.3 million on vanadium sales from a contract with a customer of $277.3 million )

Net loss of $36.2 million and a loss per share of $0.07

Cash balance of $166.1 million exiting 2019

New safety record in 2019: 238 days (1.5 million man-hours worked) without a Lost Time Injury

Other Significant Updates

Strategic sales and marketing transition proven successful: 90% committed on guided annual sales for 2020

New 2020 total cash cost8 guidance of US$3.45 – 3.65/lb V2O5

2020 total cash cost8, cash operating costs excluding royalties2, sales and production guidance maintained on a "business as usual" basis

Board approval for the construction of a vanadium trioxide ("V2O3") processing plant in Maracás, Brazil

Ilmenite flotation pilot plant proven successful; TiO2 chemical pilot plant tests and study expected to commence in April 2020

TORONTO , March 20, 2020 /CNW/ - Largo Resources Ltd. ("Largo" or the "Company") (TSX: LGO) (OTCQX: LGORF) announces its 2019 financial results highlighted by record annual production of 10,577 tonnes of vanadium pentoxide ("V2O5") and the lowest annual cash operating costs excluding royalties2 achieved to date of US$2.95 per pound of V2O5. The Company recorded a net loss of $36.2 million in 2019 largely due to lower vanadium prices and the re-measurement of trade receivables / payables as part of its offtake agreement which expires on April 30, 2020 .

Paulo Misk , President and Chief Executive Officer for Largo, stated: "Profitability was impacted in Q4 2019 and in 2019 as a consequence of lower vanadium prices and largely due to a total re-measurement of trade receivables / payables during the year of $137.3 million as part of the Company's off-take agreement. Following the expiration of the off-take agreement next month, the Company remains focused on maximizing value through its sales and marketing business, which includes a focus on high purity vanadium sales with price premiums.

https://m.marketscreener.com/news/Women-s-History-Month-2020-Women-Scientists-Shaping-Energy--30193848/

Not many people can be credited with saving lives on an industrial scale, but Esther Takeuchi has done just that. In the mid-1980s, Takeuchi took on the challenge of increasing the power of batteries used to power implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICDs), tiny devices placed inside patients needing an occasional shock to regulate heartbeat. The trouble was the meager voltage in these batteries was barely powerful enough to do the job; a battery ran out after only a year, requiring major surgery to implant a new one.

Takeuchi changed all that through research at Greatbatch, Inc. She employed new cathode materials, highly conductive electrolytes, and a novel cell design that enabled a new type of lithium/silver vanadium oxide (Li/SVO) battery the same size as the previous model-and one million times more powerful. Instead of lasting a year, Takeuchi's battery lasted five-newer generations last even longer. More than 300,000 ICDs are implanted each year to help keep heartbeats healthy.

During her career, Takeuchi has received more than 140 patents. She now serves as chief scientist at the Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, where she advocates for more applied research in battery science, in applications ranging from medical to vehicles to large-scale energy storage to renewable forms of energy generation.

Takeuchi also teaches at Stony Brook University, where she counts many young women among her students. 'I like to be a role model for them,' she says, 'demonstrating that it's possible to succeed as a scientist.'