Bushveld Minerals Limited (LON:BMN) shares jumped on Monday after the firm announced a new innovative vanadium electrolyte rental product which is being launched alongside Avalon Battery Corporation.
The AIM-quoted firm’s 84% owned subsidiary Bushveld Energy has worked with Avalon to structure and design the rental product. It includes a financial model and a set of legal agreements which allow terms acceptable to three different parties - a vanadium producer, a battery company and an electricity customer.
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Bushveld highlighted that a rental product makes commercial sense for both battery manufacturers and vanadium producers, and, that the majority of challenges to implementation have been legal rather than commercial or financial. Such challenges were related to title ownership and risk allocation.
"Renting electrolyte is only practical with vanadium because the metal does not degrade after its useful life, one more reason that vanadium is the preferred mineral for energy storage systems,” said Mikhail Nikomarov, Bushveld chief executive.
“We are pleased to partner with Avalon Battery for commercial deployment of a concept that has been in development for a while, but not successfully implemented.
“Now vanadium takes its place alongside gold, silver, and platinum, as a metal that can be leased, opening up immense future opportunities for this model."
Avalon Battery chief product officer, Matt Harper said: "Avalon is thrilled to have partnered with Bushveld Energy for a project that both benefits our customers and highlights Bushveld Energy's spirit of innovation.
“Avalon's mission is to deliver battery solutions that are dependable, safe and economical, each a critical attribute for energy storage that will drive our electrical future. Renting electrolyte is a massive leap forward."
In afternoon trading, shares in Bushveld were 4.7% higher at 28p.
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