- Often lumped in with the rare earths family, scandium has long been considered an ‘if’ metal
- Its primary use has been as an alloy with aluminium but solid oxide fuel cells are an important growth area
- Production is scanty but demand is expected to reach US$802m by 2027 at a CAGR of 7.6%
Longer term, experts believe one of the biggest markets for scandium will be the aerospace industry but John Mavrogenes, professor at the Australian National University, told
Stockhead another exciting forward-looking opportunity for scandium is as a ‘super alloy’ for electric vehicles.
“Electric vehicles are extraordinarily heavy because of the weight of the battery, so one area of opportunity to lightweight a vehicle is to make the aluminium frame lighter weight by using scandium-aluminium alloy for the frame,” he said.
Marty Weems, American Rare Earths (ASX: ARR) president North America, says these cells could also be used in the storage and transportation of hydrogen.
“Hydrogen storage in metal tanks is very corrosive to the metal, so companies have been looking at alloys that will resist the corrosion of the hydrogen,” he explains.
“An aluminium alloy with scandium would be very resistant to corrosion on that front so it could be a part of the fuel cell and as an alloy in the pipes as well as the tanks that store and transport hydrogen.
Hallgarten and Company, a New York investment bank dedicated to the natural resources space, says scandium mining playesrs are concentrated in Australia, while while two others,
Imperial Mining and Niocorp, are based in North America
https://stockhead.com.au/resources/scandium-the-super-alloy-of-the-future-thats-also-the-secret-sauce-in-solid-oxide-fuel-cells/