A true VRB Vanadium playSo a good friend of mine Preempt and I have been working on some research together in regards to the Vanadium industry and some of the massive misinformation out there, that’s being spread around by a lot of companies. For reference I’m going to post the original piece of information out from Next Source Materials website which caused a stir on some threads:
https://www.nextsourcematerials.com/vanadium/green-giant-vanadium-project/ … “Ninety-five percent of vanadium deposits worldwide are magnetite-hosted, meaning that the vanadium is bonded with magnetic metals, such as iron and titanium, and commonly occur as thinly layered deposits. Magnetite-hosted vanadium deposits are well suited for the steel market, where vanadium is produced into ferrovanadium, the form in which steel producers buy vanadium in order to combine it with steel to make high-strength metal alloys. Just 2 pounds of vanadium added to a tonne of steel will double its strength. What makes the Green Giant Vanadium Project particularly unique among the majority of vanadium deposits in the world is the fact that it is a sediment-hosted deposit. Since about only five percent of vanadium occurrences occur in sediments, the Green Giant Project is a rare type of vanadium deposit. Being sediment-hosted, no magnetic metals are associated with Green Giant’s vanadium and this makes it ideally suited to produce high-purity vanadium pentoxide (V2O5), which is a key precursor material required to produce the liquid electrolyte that powers a vanadium redox battery (VRB). The VRB is currently recognized as a leading, large-scale energy storage system technology for the harnessing of coal-powered and renewable energy and as such, is forecasted by industry analysts to have high future demand growth. Since high-purity V2O5 is essential in producing the clean electrolyte (99.5%) needed in VRBs, magnetite-hosted vanadium deposits are not well suited for VRB applications. This is because they contain impurities not found in sediment-hosted deposits and the impurities, which must be removed, are costly to extract.” Now - Some posters replies were very dismissive and suggested they were a “Vanadium wannabe” and it was false information. With this in mind Preempt and I decided to do some further research. I spoke with the Vice President at Next Source Materials - Brent Nykoliation. He stands firmly behind what’s written on their website and says they’ve been leading the research into sediment hosted Vanadium for some time. He also said when I asked him about the benefits of sediment hosted Vanadium deposits over Magnetite hosted Vanadium deposits: “NextSource Materials discovered its sedimentary-hosted vanadium resource over 10 years ago in Madagascar and have invested over US$15 million to delineate a very late-stage (NI 43-101 compliant) resource with a technical study report, confirming our Green Giant project ranks as one of the largest-known and highest (in-situ) grade V deposits in the world. The fact that we have a sedimentary deposit caused us to conduct a significant amount of due diligence on the space, which determined that sedimentary despots were being sought after by the limited number of VRB manufacturers back in the day. In 2009, we were the only Vanadium project talking to the VRB story. This was when no one else was taking about VRBs and the fact that 99% of investors and analysts did not even know what vanadium was, let alone a VRB. To this day, I can still trace our actual research and findings used in other companies presentations to our original presentation materials. In fact, I have noticed that some of our original slide visuals and data are being used to this day by other V companies who pass it off as there own. That material was created and originated with us. I can say with a very high degree of confidence that, other than maybe one other company I know of, no other vanadium junior has conducted the due diligence required on the VRB space that NextSource has. In Canada, the “Street” (buy-side and sell side analysts) regard us as one of the very few vanadium experts out there, and in partilcuar, on the VRB. We were previously known as Uranium Star and then Energizer Resources before changing the corporate name to NextSource Materials. Senior management has remained the same all these years and our CEO Craig Scherba, P. Geo. is the geologist that discovered both our vanadium and graphite deposits. I have personally traveled the globe and met with 5 separate VRB manufactures - Sumitomo Electric, CellCube, Rongke Power (UET), Dalian/Bolong and Ashlawn Energy. CellCube and Rongke Power/Bolong rank as #1 and # 2 globally in terms of sales and installed batteries. I have visited their head offices and operations, spoken face to face with their scientists and engineers who build these batteries and source the electrolyte that powers them. Without exception, we have been told by every one of these VRB manufacturers that it is the rarely-occurring sedimentary-hosted deposits that they are looking for, for VRB applications. Magnetite-hosted (i.e. iron-bearing) deposits do not work, because the process to remove the iron and the rest of the contaminants associates with these deposits make them uneconomical. To my knowledge, I do not know any magnetite-hosted vanadium junior claiming their material goes to VRBs that has actually had their vanadium tested by the mature VRB companies I mentioned above AND with project economics to support would be profitable to even do so. We fully recognize that information is not out there for investors to access - the industry is very opaque and difficult to navigate. In order to understand what we have learned, investors have to speak to directly to the VRB manufactures and specifically the engineers i.e. the people in “white lab coats”. These VRB manufactures all source the high-purity V2O5 from mostly stone-coal deposits (sedimentary deposits) in China or from fly-ash residue, which is a more expensive option (Stratcor). Dalian/Bolong is currently the largest supplier of electrolyte, supplying ~80% of the VRB companies, all from sedimentary (stone coal) deposits in China. If you refer to our recent news as well, Mr. Brett Whalen recently joined NextSource Materials' advisory and M&A team. Mr. Whalen is a former fund manager with Dundee Corp., one of Canada’s largest junior mining equity funds (and NextSources’ largest institutional investor), and is himself regarded by the street as a vanadium and graphite expert with extensive knowledge in the renewable energy sector. He has done extensive due diligence on VRBs and numerous vanadium deposits and will also tell you that all the VRB manufacturers are looking for sedimentary-hosted deposits. He also served previously as Chairman of a vanadium company that had the sales rights to Cellcube for North America. CellCube owns a sedimentary-hosted deposit and is looking for more to acquire or JV with. There is much mis-information out there. I encourage investors to do their homework- call up the VRB companies and speak to the source (not easy to do). Or happy to chat with any investor if they have questions and I can share the information I have gathered over the years…and still gathering.” Now HC friends - Brent encourages everyone researching the topic to have a look at their resources and get in touch with him - the guy is fantastic and very helpful. I personally have had a fantastic experience speaking with him about their projects and would highly recommend looking NextSource Materials up. It’s really a brilliant project IMO. Now before people say “of course he’s going to say those things” we decided to take it one step further and contacted a VRB company - CellCube Energy Storage
https://www.cellcubeenergystorage.com I spoke with a fantastic lady called Glenda Kelly. I asked her about if they were advantages for sediment hosted Vanadium deposits over Magnetite hosted Vanadium and whether the company preferred sediment hosted Vanadium as it contains less impurities: She said: “You are correct... Vanadium deposits combined (with) any impurities is more costly to refine the vanadium from, these deposits is not great material for VRFB electrolyte.” “The Vanadium can be sediment hosted but the key is the lack of impurities, the fewer the better.” “You are correct the we look for high grade vanadium pentoxide for the electrolyte solution. The company does have patents on electrolyte solutions that make it more economical.” However the naysayers want to spin it, Sediment hosted Vanadium at Haggan AND at Next Sources Green Giant project are the preferred type that these battery companies are looking for. Not just my opinion - but also the opinion of the people who make these batteries as well. Magnetite is NOT economical for them and as such they are looking for sediment hosted Vanadium. Anyway- just thought I’d share our research. Thank you all for your time - speak soon and don’t shoot the messengers.