Australian Vanadium Ltd (ASX:AVL) will join the Benchmark World Tour 2018 which will cover the vanadium energy storage supply chain for the first time.
The tour is run by Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, a price data collection and assessment company specialising in the lithium-ion battery supply chain.
AVL managing director Vincent Algar will provide a keynote presentation when the tour visits Perth, Melbourne and Sydney.
READ: Australian Vanadium continues to advance China-focused vanadium strategy
Participation in Benchmark Minerals’ tour recognises the company’s expertise in vanadium.
Benchmark is most famous for setting the lithium industry’s reference price that is also quoted by Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters.
Tour in its fourth year
The tour, which is in its fourth year, is the world’s leading forum on supply chains for battery technologies and this year will visit 16 cities.
Benchmark Minerals’ managing director Simon Moores said: “Vanadium has huge potential to reshape the global utility storage market.
“At Benchmark, we have seen the utility industry evolve to such a stage that in 2018 it’s clear that its growth has been underestimated.”
“Vanadium’s ‘lithium-ion moment’ is coming,” he added.
READ: Australian Vanadium raises $3 million to advance Gabanintha Vanadium Project
Algar said: “We have been impressed with the way Benchmark Minerals has approached the lithium supply chain and they have gained a lot of respect for their approach to the market.
“I am delighted that vanadium will now take its place next to lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite as one of the key metals required for the renewable energy-focused future.
“The interest in vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFB) is growing and with countries such as China building batteries like the Rongke Power 200MW/800MWh system, it won’t be long before the engineers involved in projects begin to understand VRFBs’ strengths.
“Indeed, our 100%-owned subsidiary VSUN Energy has recently been approached for quotes for a project where a VRFB was specified in the tender documents.”
AVL holds Gabanintha project
AVL holds 100% of the Gabanintha project near Meekatharra in Western Australia. Gabanintha hosts a mineral resource of 179.6 million tonnes at 0.75% vanadium pentoxide.
This includes a measured resource of 10.2 million tonnes at 1.06% V2O5 and an indicated resource of 25.4 million tonnes at 0.62% V2O5 with the remainder in the inferred category.