Highlights

• Vanadium presents a significant opportunity for explorers due to its growing demand in the battery storage industry.
• Vanadium is the key component of vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs).
• King River Resources has collaborated with Murdoch University to develop a new flowsheet for the extraction of vanadium, titanium, and iron from the Speewah project.
• The Speewah project has the largest vanadium-in-magnetite deposit in Australia.
• The Australian Government has included vanadium in its critical minerals list.

King River Resources (ASX: KRR) is an exploration and mining company advancing its Tennant Creek project in the Northern Territory and the Speewah and Mt Remarkable projects in Western Australia’s Kimberley.

The company is committed to advancing the Speewah Vanadium Project to tap rapidly developing markets of battery metals and master alloy compounds. The vanadium sector has been experiencing a slew of growth opportunities lately. There is a growing demand for vanadium to make electrolytes for VRFBs, titanium oxide pigments, and master alloys. These applications are considered critical to the global push toward low-carbon power generation.

The explorer is currently working on a new eco-friendly process flow sheet to produce high-purity V₂O₅ (vanadium pentoxide), TiO₂ (titanium dioxide) and Fe (metallic iron).

In terms of tonnage and vanadium pentoxide concentration, the Speewah deposit is the country’s largest vanadium-in--magnetite deposit, as per the company. It contains 4,712 million tons of total ore of 0.3% V₂O₅, 3.3% TiO₂ and 14.7% iron.

Image source: ID 168596695 © Malpetr|Megapixl.com

Initial outcomes point to significant opportunity

In collaboration with Murdoch University's Hydrometallurgy Research Group, the company is developing a new process flowsheet to facilitate multi-commodity production using ores from the Speewah vanadium deposit.

The company is working on two new processing methods, including testing an oxidised salt roasting process to recover vanadium and reductive roasting processes, including hydrogen, to recover other metals.

The initial results from the salt roasting process proved fruitful, with vanadium extraction rates of up to 92%. According to the company, preliminary salt-roasting results are used to select the optimal reagent sets, dosages, and temperature conditions for subsequent salt-roasting test work. 

KRR believes that the ‘excellent’ extraction rate is far above initial expectations and maybe even higher after additional optimisation processes are implemented.

Bright prospects in vanadium market

King River is also a part of the Future Battey Industry Cooperative Research Centre (FBICRC), which will be dedicated to the development of vanadium electrolytes.

Interestingly, the Australian Government has included vanadium in its list of critical minerals and is taking steps to position the country as an important mineral powerhouse. The critical minerals initiative has a commitment package of AU$200 million, planned to be directed towards key projects at critical stages of development.    

Vanadium has applications in the production of alloy steels, aircraft carriers, and nuclear reactors. However, the use of materials in the fabrication of VRFBs has recently been put to the forefront of emerging new energy markets.

Batteries are often used to store energy generated by utility grids, commercial facilities, solar and wind power systems, as well as to store power on industrial sites.

Thanks to the strong potential of its project, King River aims to play a key role in a green and sustainable future.

KRR shares traded at AU$0.016 on 22 August 2022.