VanadiumCorp Resource Inc (TSX-V:VRB) told investors it has met significant milestones in the establishment of a test facility for manufacturing vanadium electrolytes.
Site selection is complete and equipment procurement has begun, with the company securing the primary electrolyte manufacturing equipment from leading international process equipment suppliers, it added.
The company noted that the electrolyte facility will be located at the Carrefour d’Innovation sur les matériaux de la MRC des Sources (CIMMS), in Val-des-Sources, Québec.
CIMMS provides technical support services to innovative mining, metals and eco-materials companies active in Québec. The company said it has signed a cooperation agreement with CIMMS to produce over 2 million litres a year of high-quality vanadium electrolyte for use in Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries (VRFB), with production expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2023. The initial test facility is sufficient to provision 6.2 megawatt-hours (MWh) of VRFB storage per year.
Contingent on sales, VanadiumCorp said potential production at the CIMMS site can expand incrementally according to market needs using our modular production-line design, each module with a capacity of 4 million litres/year, each providing about 80 MWh of VRFB storage per year.
"We are delighted that our electrolyte facility is now taking shape,” VanadiumCorp CEO Paul McGuigan said in a statement. “VanadiumCorp will be able to plan production for the expanding global market for this key ingredient in long-duration vanadium redox flow batteries. We look forward to a very positive partnership with CIMMS.”
CIMMS chairman François Gouin commented: “It is with enthusiasm that CIMMS begins collaboration with VanadiumCorp within the framework of the new agreement signed recently.”
VanadiumCorp wholly owns two strategic vanadium, titanium, and iron properties in Quebec. The Iron T is near Matagami, and the company's flagship Lac Doré property is near Chibougamau.
It also owns 100% of a newly patented hydrometallurgical process called VEPT (the VanadiumCorp, Electrochem, Process Technology), which consists of digesting vanadiferous feedstocks into concentrated sulfuric acid, recovering vanadium, titanium, ferrous sulphate, and silica products from mineral concentrate feedstocks, such as titanomagnetite.
Contact the author at stephen.gunnion@proactiveinvestors.com