Vanadium Resources (ASX: VR8; FRA: TR3), an ASX-listed Australian company headquartered in Johannesburg, is a vanadium developer focused on advancing the tier 1, globally significant Steelpoortdrift Project in Limpopo, South Africa.
Steelpoortdrift hosts a multigenerational Mineral Resource containing c.4.74Mt of V2O5 and 154.8Mt of Fe2O is strategically positioned as a non-aligned supplier to anchor Western-aligned supply chains for a critical mineral which is currently one of a handful of critical metals of geo-political significance where supply is heavily concentrated in favour of China and Russia (c.93% of global supply.
VR8 is planning the development of a V-Iron Plant, in which vanadium slag will be recovered alongside pig iron, using a next-generation process derived from the same process which is used by New Zealand Steel and which that has produced over 70% of global vanadium for 50 years on a near-identical Bushveld orebody by Anglo American’s Highveld Steel. Co-production of pig iron diversifies revenue and enhances sustainability and resilience through exposure to both pig-iron and vanadium price volatility. This integrated product strategy establishes a stable cashflow floor, strengthens longterm sustainability and improves operational resilience.
Similarly, the importance of stationary energy storage systems for the global energy transition is increasing and, in this context, vanadium flow batteries are playing an increasingly important role.
Our product is critical for the manufacture of vanadium flow batteries, which are now being increasingly used as large scale stationary energy storage systems for wind and solar farms.