Member Info for SloppyGuiseppe

https://www.ig.com/en-ch/news-and-trade-ideas/commodities-news/supply-problems-continue-to-drive-iron-ore-price-higher-190516.amp Supply problems continue to drive Iron ore price higher The iron ore price has reached a two-year high this week, and with supply concerns in both Brazil and Australia continuing to rumble on, further gains seem likely.

https://www.benzinga.com/pressreleases/19/05/n13755685/vanadium-demand-expected-to-hit-56-billion-driving-new-north-american-mining-plays NEW YORK, May 16, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Vanadium sector continues to see rising demand for new projects, indicating a steady demand for the metal despite rise and fall in price over the last 18 months. According to a recently published report from Acumen Research and Consulting, the overall vanadium market size is still expected to be worth approximately US$ 56 billion by 2026. The long view of the sector has driven developments continue to flow from multiple vanadium companies including Delrey Metals Corp (OTC:DLRYF) (CSE:DLRY), Largo Resources (OTC:LGORF) (TSX:LGO), First Vanadium Corp. (TSX.V:FVAN) (OTC:FVANF), Bushveld Minerals Limited (OTC:BSHVF), and Alba Minerals Ltd. (TSX.V:AA)(OTC:AXVEF). Perhaps the next big vanadium player could be Bushveld Minerals Limited (OTC:BSHVF) which recently doubled down to significantly increase its vanadium production. Through a series of acquisitions in South Africa, the low-cost integrated miner added to its portfolio the Vametco vanadium mine and processing plant which is currently in phase 2. These additions compliment Bushveld's own energy storage subsidiary as part of a strategy to establish itself as a fully integrated vanadium business.

https://www.compelo.com/energy/news/schmid-nusaned-riwaq-partner/ SCHMID has partnered with Nusaned Investment, an investment company owned by SABIC, and RIWAQ for developing manufacturing and technology in the field of Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries (VRFB). The parties have signed agreement to establish a joint venture in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia focusing on VRFB. The joint venture is intended to become an international technology hub in the utility-scale energy storage segment and support the Saudi’s Vision 2030 economic diversification objectives. The new joint venture has research and development facilities in Germany and Saudi Arabia, and is planning to open a GW scale manufacturing facility in the Kingdom, which is expected to start production in 2020. Saudi Arabia has recently announced the new energy mix, and targeted installing 57.5GW of renewable capacity in the Kingdom by 2030. The new partnership is expected to contribute directly to the Kingdom’s renewable ambitions. Utility-scale stationary energy storage systems are expected to be critical for the new renewable capacity with stabilized and connected reliably to the grid. The company said that the investment is aimed at strengthening the position of Kingdom in R&D and manufacturing fields for utility-scale energy storage, and development of domestic and international markets. In addition, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia also would leverage the new technology in the upcoming mega-projects it is carrying out, like NEOM and Red Sea Project. Nusaned is a Saudi-based investment company owned by SABIC with a mandate to increase local content in the Kingdom. The company invests alongside local investors in localizing mature technologies and pioneering emerging technologies in the Kingdom.

https://www.iafrica.com/south-africas-fortune-in-eskoms-hands-ramaphosa/ President Cyril Ramaphosa said sacrifices would have to be made to prevent the failure of Eskom, warning that if the utility collapsed so would the country’s economy. Ramaphosa was speaking to investors at a Goldman Sachs conference in Westcliff in Johannesburg on Wednesday morning. He assured them that the country would be run differently to stimulate the economy. It was the first time the president met with investors since the African National Congress’ victory at the polls last week. “It’s just too important to fail. It holds the fortunes, at an economic level and the social life of our country, in its hands.” Ramphosa said South Africa couldn’t afford the collapse of the parastatal. He said government would announce further plans in the State of the Nation Address about how it would deal with the cash-strapped company. “Labour, private sector and our own communities would have to play a role. Without Eskom, our community stalls.” In February, Ramaphosa revealed that the utility would split into three entities: generation, transmission and distribution – an announcement that was met with concerns from labour unions. But Ramaphosa told investors the restructuring of Eskom had subsequently been widely welcomed. He again gave the assurance that the state-owned company would not be privatised

https://www.energy-storage.news/news/partnerships-in-saudi-and-australia-plan-future-of-long-duration-flow-batte Saudi gigawatt flow battery manufacturing In related news, Saudi Arabia has also taken a shine to flow battery technology as the Kingdom targets 57.5GW of renewable capacity by 2030 and seeks to ensure it maintains a stable grid. German tech firm Schmid Group has therefore agreed to form a joint venture with two local entities, Nusaned Investment, an investment company owned by one of the world’s largest petrochemicals manufacturers, Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), as well as another Saudi investment firm, RIWAQ Industrial Development Company. The JV will focus on developing and manufacturing Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries. Moreover, with R&D facilities in both Germany and Saudi Arabia, the companies plan to build a Gigawatt-scale manufacturing facility in the Kingdom to go into production in the next year. A Schmid release suggested that Saudi Arabia may consider adding this technology to its NEOM project, a planned cross-border city in the Tabuk Province of northwestern Saudi Arabia, as well as its luxury tourism development plan, known as the Red Sea Project. It's worth noting that back in February, SABIC also acquired a majority stake in Texas-based nanotechnology company Black Diamond Structures, which produces modified carbon nanotubes for energy storage applications. The firm hopes to apply this technology to improve charge rates, battery cycle-life and energy density, as well as to downsize battery designs for use in lighter EVs and lower production costs.

https://finfeed.com/small-caps/mining/specialty-metals-producing-tungsten-2019/ Right metal, right time Shares in tungsten stocks have gained renewed support in the last 12 months with the share price of another emerging player, King Island Scheelite Ltd (ASX:KIS), having nearly doubled in price since May 2018. While the tungsten price eased in the latter half of 2018, it appears to have found support around current levels and with industry analysts indicating that the supply/demand equation has now turned in favour of producers, the timing couldn’t be better for Specialty Metals. Roskill, a notable industry source in terms of analysing specialty metals noted last year that global tungsten markets were returning to growth following several years of oversupply and low prices. In a 10 year outlook statement, Roskill said, “Tungsten market fundamentals have changed as demand from defence, industrial, and oil and gas applications has picked up, just as environmental policies in China have curbed supply and added cost pressures for producers.” The issue of supply is potentially a long-term price driver as China is the largest producer of tungsten globally, accounting for more than 80% of supply of tungsten concentrates in 2017. A tightening in environmental restrictions has impacted the supply of many metals mined in China, with coal being severely impacted in recent years due to both environmental and mine safety issues. Roskill reported that China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment had flagged a second round of central environmental inspections across all provinces within the next three years, an initiative that could result in either mine closures or the instigation of compliance demands that would result in increased costs of production. This could potentially render some mines uneconomical, prompting the need for the manufacturing giant to source tungsten from overseas producers. Such a scenario where supply is constrained and demand increases should theoretically drive up prices.

https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news/1903234-kiln-closure-hits-largo-resources-vanadium-output?backToResults=true Toronto-based Largo Resources produced 5pc less vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) in the first quarter of 2019 because of the kiln closure at its Maracas Menchen mine in Brazil. The Maracas Menchen mine produced 2,099t of V2O5 in the first quarter, compared with 2,214t in the same quarter last year. "Lower production during the quarter was largely due to the completion of the kiln refractory replacement which occurred during March 2019 and resulted in 11 days of production downtime," the company said. But global V2O5 recovery rates averaged 80pc in the first quarter, an increase of 5pc on a year earlier, a new quarterly record for the company, Largo said. This higher recovery rate reduced the production impact from the kiln refractory replacement shutdown through the production of V2O5 stocks that were processed during this time. Around 250,109t of ore with an effective V2O5 grade of 1.29pc was mined in the quarter, nearly 6pc up on a year earlier. Mining, crushing and milling operations increased concentrate stockpiles necessary for the shutdowns required to tie in the expansion with the existing plant, the company said. Vanadium sales from contracts rose by almost 39pc on the year to $101.4mn, Largo said, primarily because of higher V2O5 prices, although total revenue halved to $44.3mn. "The decline in the price of vanadium and the significant remeasurement of trade receivables under the company's offtake agreement greatly impacted profitability this quarter," Largo chief executive Mark Smith said. Europe has witnessed a sharp fall in vanadium pentoxide prices since hitting multi-year highs in mid-November, dropping by nearly a quarter in the first quarter. Prices for 98pc fused flake V2O5 declined by 51pc to $9.50/lb on 14 May, down from $19.50/lb at the start of the year in Europe, according to Argus data.

https://www.fin24.com/Economy/eskoms-losses-still-escalating-but-it-can-be-turned-around-heres-how-20190515-2 Eberhard said all the studies on the country’s electricity situation - by UCT, the CSIR and the Department of Energy – had made similar findings: close the old power stations and increase solar and wind power, complemented by a flexible resource such as gas or utility-scale battery storage. He said the government should have launched a new round of independent power producers years ago. Wind and solar were by far the cheapest electricity option. If there were another round of today, the price of renewables would be less than 50c a kilowatt-hour. Eberhard said the contribution of wind and solar power in South Africa, although it accounted for only 5% of Eskom’s sales, had made a big contribution to mitigating load shedding earlier this year. “If we had not had renewable energy, we would have had Stage 5 or Stage 6 load-shedding.”

https://theenergyst.com/calls-government-incentives-encourage-investment-battery-storage/

https://stockhead.com.au/resources/tng-nails-titanium-off-take-with-swiss-giant-giving-its-mount-peake-funding-strategy-a-further-boost/ Report: Strategic metals developer TNG (ASX:TNG) says its Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project in the Northern Territory is now fully covered by customer sales contracts after signing a binding life-of-mine off-take agreement with the multi-billion dollar Swiss-based specialty chemical distributor DKSH

https://investingnews.com/daily/resource-investing/battery-metals-investing/vanadium-investing/andrew-odonnell-investors-need-vanadium-story/ Andrew O’Donnell, managing director of Super Charged Stocks, tackled the vanadium space in a presentation at Mines and Money New York last week, discussing whether vanadium, the hottest commodity of 2018, is expected to continue that trajectory in 2019. In an interview at the sidelines of the show, he spoke further about his belief that the vanadium story is continually growing, how more uses for the battery metal are still being explored and why investors need to continue to pay attention to its potential. “There’s a lot of infrastructure. From the US alone, the infrastructure build would be massive. So, there is a demand for a lot of materials — vanadium is required to strengthen alloys and 92 percent of all vanadium is sold for strengthening the steel industry,” he said. But for O’Donnell, the most exciting use of vanadium is through the redox battery. Vanadium redox flow batteries are gaining popularity as a contender for large-scale energy storage because they are able to provide hundreds of megawatt hours at grid scale. This means that they are able to be charged thousands of times without losing capacity, while holding large amounts of energy. “When you see people putting in, solving real-world problems and having solutions, especially with something (like) vanadium — which is clean energy, totally rechargeable, 20 years worth of storage — it’s exciting. So, to see if they can ramp it up (to) that massive scale as they are in China, it’s pretty exciting,” O’Donnell added. While every commodity has its day, O’Donnell said, “(Vanadium is) a growing story that you need to be a part of and there’s lots of entry points on a lot of good companies.”

https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/219913/apollo-minerals-continues-to-make-progress-with-the-revitalisation-of-the-couflens-tungsten-gold-project-219913.html Looks as though we are in a popular area

https://www.energy-storage.news/news/anger-as-uk-govt-proposes-15-tax-rise-for-solar-storage-purchases The national Renewable Energy Association has taken aim at a British government proposal to hike up tax rates attached to some energy saving equipment purchases, including solar and battery storage. A consultation launched by the government department responsible for tax, HM Revenue & Customs closed late last week, proposing an increase in the VAT (value-added tax, the UK's sales tax mechanism) attached to these energy saving materials from 5% to 20%, essentially eliminating a discount that had been applied to those products.

No neee to panic https://investorintel.com/sectors/technology-metals/technology-metals-intel/the-long-term-outlook-for-vanadium-miners-remains-strong-despite-recent-vanadium-price-falls/ Vanadium demand will continue to strengthen due to demand for higher strength steel from the steel industry, as well as incremental new demand from Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries (VRFBs). Vanadium is one of the 35 minerals deemed critical to US national security. It has multiple uses in today’s modern world from being used in steel manufacturing, VRFBs, tools, and even nuclear power plants. Around 85% of vanadium production is used as a steel strength additive. Even Henry Ford used vanadium in his car manufacturing process and it is used to harden re-bar steel in building construction and tool making.VRFBs have unique characteristics that make them ideal in the energy storage space. A VRFB typically is charged using renewable energy such as wind turbines or solar panels. The VRFB has several unique characteristics that give them an advantage for large scale commercial energy storage. They can charge and discharge at the same time, and they can last up to 25-30 years with continued daily use.On the supply side, there will be some new supply from existing producers such as Bushveld, AMG and Largo Resources over the next 3 years. The question is whether this can keep up with surging demand and what happens post 2021. The graph below forecasts demand will outstrip supply, especially after 2021.

https://www.theadvocate.com.au/story/6113349/stacks-up-hope-of-2020-king-island-tungsten-mine-production/ “With a favourable tungsten price environment expected to persist, model outputs reiterate that KIS is developing the project with the right commodity in the right place and time” Sounds good to me....

https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news/1898682-china-steel-exporters-shift-attention-to-domestic-sales?backToResults=true China's steel exporters expect slower seaborne sales for the remainder of 2019, as trade tensions and higher domestic demand keep more of it home. Chinese exporters geared up spot seaborne sales last spring to protect market share but are now showing less appetite for sales amid narrower profit margins. Rising feedstock costs and limited upside in steel prices have left Chinese mills more price sensitive and unable to discount further in the face of increased competition into battleground regions. Steel exports from Qatar, India, Turkey and Malaysia are displacing Chinese sales into Asean countries. "Chinese export volumes should decrease this year as the government increases investment on infrastructure, which can absolutely support its domestic demand," an east China-based mill official said. His company is not encouraging steel exports. "It will be a tough year for exporters" with the heightened trade tensions with the US and wild swings in the yuan-US dollar exchange rate, he said. Another mill exporter, who at the start of 2019 expected volumes to slightly increase, now forecasts export volumes to remain flat or fall slightly. Its April steel exports fell by 2.3pc to 6.33mn t from a year earlier, the fourth decline in six months. January-April exports rose by 8.3pc to 23.35mn t, for an annualised pace of 70mn t/yr that was marginally flat to the 69.15mn t exported in 2018. China's steel exports have seen a multi-year decline since peaking at 112mn t in 2015. China's efforts to reduce pollution and shut down illegal mills, as well as sustain economic stimulus to support domestic demand, have kept its steel prices firm. More trade cases against China have also weighed on its exports. US steel tariffs and quotas, EU import quotas and other trade barriers have left global steel exporters with fewer options. Slower domestic consumption in Turkey and Malaysia has freed up more of their steel for spot sales to Asia. Qatar — cut off from trade with its neighbours by a diplomatic crisis — has also targeted Singapore for rebar sales. Global steel markets are worried that a 10pc growth in Chinese steel supply this year will require seaborne markets as an outlet to keep their domestic markets in balance. But Chinese mills and traders said domestic demand is strong enough to absorb that supply. "Chinese export volumes will definitely decrease," a Chinese trader said. "The key factor pushing Chinese mills to export this year is the pressure to supply the domestic market, instead of maintaining export market share.

Speaking at a site visit to Eskom’s RT&D centre earlier this year, Bushveld Energy CEO Mikhail Nikomarov noted that the trial unit is a small solution but proportional in its design to address Eskom’s energy-to-power ratio and size requirements. It is meant to assist the utility with peak shaving by supplying stored energy to the grid during periods of peak energy demand. Gearing up for bigger battery storage opportunities Thanks to the learnings provided through the VRFB deployment, Nikomarov believes Bushveld Energy stands in better stead to tender for the utility’s upcoming battery energy storage systems (BESS) project. Eskom announced the BESS project in October 2018, which entails the large-scale deployment of distributed battery energy storage. The funding for the BESS project, which is already in place from the World Bank and partner institution, forms part of the multi-billion dollar loan that was provided to Eskom for the Medupi and Kusile coal power station financing. The loan specifically required that part of the funds to be used for the deployment of renewable energy, and the BESS project is designed to enable Eskom’s power system to absorb more renewable energy. While Eskom has already spent a portion of this on the establishment of the Sere wind farm and the Ingula pumped hydro storage scheme, it has applied for and been granted permission to deploy the remainder of the funding into battery energy storage. The project will be implemented in two phases for a total of 1 400 MWh of energy storage capacity – 800 MWh in Phase 1 and an additional 600 MWh in Phase 2. The request for proposals for the first phase of 800 MWh is expected to be released to the market by mid-2019, with construction, testing and commissioning anticipated before the end of 2019, while the second phase is anticipated in 2020. According to Nikomarov, there are several benefits for Eskom in using battery storage as part of its energy mix, including energy arbitrage, offsetting the lack of flexibility of baseload power generation (coal and nuclear) by supplementing supply through demand peaks and troughs, for complementing variable wind generation and for storing solar energy for dispatch at peak demand times. Mojapelo says that should Bushveld Minerals be awarded a portion of the tender, the company plans to deliver on it through a combination of systems that are imported and locally sourced and assembled. The more time that is permitted between order placement and delivery by Eskom, the greater the amount of components that could be sourced from South Africa. However, in line with Bushveld Minerals’ strategy of becoming one of the world’s largest integrated primary vanadium platform, it is the company’s endgame to vertically grow the business. It plans to do this through the supply of vanadium electrolyte for VRFBs for the energy storage sector in the medium term, which the co

https://www.miningreview.com/battery-metals/bushveld-minerals-battery-storage/ While much of the hype around energy storage has been around lithium-ion batteries, which have a wide array of uses – for powering personal electronic devices to electric vehicles – there is a need for bigger batteries that are able to store much more energy The VRFB is emerging as a solution to the challenge faced by the renewable energy generation sector for storing energy – as the energy is not always generated at the same time as peak demand occurs. This means that VRFBs, which truly excel when storing energy for longer periods of time, such as three hours or more, unlike lithium-ion which prove more economically viable for energy storage over shorter periods of time, can be used to store energy for use at peak load times on conventional energy grids or when the renewable energy system is not producing energy. For example, this would be when the sun is not shining or the wind is not blowing in the case of solar and wind power, respectively. There are also many other suitable applications for VRFBs within the transmission and distribution network, mini and smart grids, as well as behind-the-meter applications. Bushveld Energy’s first energy storage project, which is currently underway, entails the testing of a utility-scale VRFB at state-owned power utility Eskom’s mini-grid located at its Research, Testing and Development (RT&D) Centre in Rosherville, South Africa – allowing Eskom to test the VRFB, its performance and applications under numerous simulations. The project is the culmination of the co-operation between Bushveld Energy and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) of South Africa who together undertook a study in the second half of 2016 to assess African VRFB demand and opportunities. By August 2017, the study concluded that favourable demand for VRFBs, particularly in the utility (including transmission and distribution networks) and off-grid, as well as mini-grid markets, exist. The 120 kW peak power and 450 kWh peak energy VRFB, which was manufactured by US-based technology company, UniEnergy Technologies, is in the process of undergoing an 18 month-long testing period to validate the operational performance of the system in local conditions and to demonstrate the applicability of the VRFB for broader commercial use in South Africa and the rest of Africa. The testing will entail at least six simulations at the RT&D Centre including minimum load shifting, wind generation smoothing, solar generation smoothing, power quality improvement, multiple full daily charge cycles and potentially self-black-start capability.

Chrome http://mchuneng.bjx.com.cn/mnews/20190507/978899.shtml On May 6th, the Zhejiang Zhangzhou Municipal Political Consultative Conference organized a symposium on the development and application of energy storage technology, and held a special lecture and the 16th lecture of the Chongxue Forum to conduct a special study on the development and application of all-vanadium liquid energy storage technology. Wu Guosheng, chairman of the CPPCC National Committee, attended and spoke. The lecturer of this lecture is Dr. Wang Yu, the leader of the whole vanadium redox flow energy storage technology in China. She explains the principle, industry development, application fields and future prospects of all vanadium redox flow energy storage technology. At the subsequent symposium, the relevant departments and business leaders of Chenzhou City and Dr. Wang Yu teamed up to discuss cooperation matters. Hyosung spandex, Huayou Cobalt and other enterprises are all major consumers of electricity. Reducing the cost of electricity has always been a difficult problem for enterprises. The person in charge of the company said that they are very grateful to the CPPCC for setting up such a communication platform to provide solutions for enterprises to transform and upgrade and solve problems. It is hoped that the government will be able to introduce more support policies to promote the all-vanadium liquid energy storage project in Chenzhou, and hope to cooperate with the project team to promote pragmatic cooperation, effectively reduce the cost of electricity consumption and enhance the competitiveness of enterprises. Wu Guosheng said that the special lectures + seminars and exchanges are aimed at building a communication and communication platform for enterprises, industry partners and government departments, and promoting mutually beneficial cooperation. Promoting the application of advanced and applicable energy storage technologies will help enterprises to transform and upgrade and provide accurate and efficient services for local economic and social development. Quzhou has a rich industrial ecology of vanadium storage and energy storage battery production. Many enterprises also have huge demand for energy saving and cost reduction. They have the resource advantages and industrial advantages for developing all-vanadium liquid energy storage technology. In the next step, we hope that all parties will give full play to their respective advantages, strengthen docking exchanges and cooperation, and accelerate the application of energy storage industry development and energy storage technology in Chenzhou City. To explore cooperation based on industry chain. 

https://investingnews.com/daily/resource-investing/critical-metals-investing/tungsten-investing/w-resources-updates-tungsten-project/