Stockwatch Commentary “Adriaan Bakker's Vanadiumcorp Resource Inc. (VRB), unchanged at six cents on 283,000 shares, plans to open a research and development facility in Germany that will be "focused on next generation flow battery innovation." Mr. Bakker, CEO for the past six years, says that focusing on sustainability and innovation for the past 12 years has "led Vanadiumcorp to what may facilitate the electrification of mobile applications such as vehicles, trains and ships."
When Vanadiumcorp is not focusing on research and development of vanadium redox flow batteries, it is exploring for vanadium to put into its batteries. The company continues drilling at its Lac Dore vanadium, iron and titanium deposit, just southeast of Chibougamau in north-central Quebec. The 8,500-metre drill program is designed to infill and extend the deposit, leading to a resource estimate and a preliminary economic assessment. The company had one -- resource estimate, that is, of 99.1 million tonnes at 0.43 per cent vanadium oxide, as determined in 2015. All was well until the company completed a preliminary economic assessment late in 2017.
Investors noted the $237-million discounted net present value after taxes, but also the $321-million capital cost, and while the dream sheet caught the attention of the market it also roused the B.C. Securities Commission, which belatedly questioned the veracity of historical drill data and insisted on changes to the report. As it turned out, the changes requested were more complex than usual, and Vanadiumcorp missed its filing deadline.
Late last year the company conceded defeat, filing a new technical report for Lac Dore that effectively killed the preliminary study. It also left the inferred resource among the walking dead, a retracted zombie that should not be relied upon. Presumably, if the new drilling confirms the old data, the Lac Dore resource will be in line with the earlier calculation.” Stockwatch Commentary Oct 1,2019 by Will Purcell