Why Vanadium

Why Invest in VR8 and Why Vanadium

Vanadium is one of the most embedded industrial metals in the modern economy and one of the most strategically exposed. It is designated as a critical mineral in most countries, but particularly in the West because it is essential across four established and growing market sectors with no viable substitutes, yet its supply is concentrated in China and Russia. The metal’s strategic nature, indispensable industrial value combined with Steelpoortdrift’s superior grade and large multi-generational resource sits at the heart of the VR8 investment case.

A Designated Critical Mineral

Vanadium is considered a critical mineral for many countries, including Australia, Japan, South-Korea, China and Russia. It has been listed as a critical mineral across Western economies since 2017 for its role in high-strength steel alloys, defence applications and grid-scale energy storage. Western economies import the vast majority of their vanadium and have no active primary vanadium mines.
The Payne Institute projects a 250% surge in vanadium defence demand by 2035, the largest projected increase of any critical mineral in the defence category.
 

Steel & Alloys

Around 90% of vanadium demand comes from its ability to strengthen steel. An addition of less than 0.1% vanadium will broadly double the strength of steel. Vanadium is essential for rebar in large construction and seismic zones, for bridges and pipelines, and to structural steel.  Demand is growing at around 5% per annum and is expected to be driven higher by a resurgence in Chinese and Indian demand.

Defence & Aerospace

Titanium-vanadium alloys are used in jet-engine turbines, airframes and missile casings, while vanadium-hardened HSLA steel underpins armour plate, naval hulls and ballistic steel. Its high strength-to-weight ratio makes it critical to the Western defence industrial base.

Energy Storage – Vanadium Flow Batteries

Vanadium redox flow batteries (VFBs) offer non-flammable, long-duration, grid-scale storage with a 25+ year design life and fully recyclable electrolyte, an ideal complement to wind and solar generation, with no viable substitute. VFBs are expected to grow from around 7% of vanadium demand today toward 17% by 2033.

Industrial Chemicals

Vanadium pentoxide is the primary catalyst in the Contact Process used to manufacture sulphuric acid, the world’s most-produced industrial chemical and the backbone of phosphate fertiliser production, ore processing, fuel refining and a vast range of manufacturing.

A Western Supply Gap VR8 Can Close

Western markets together consume around 19% of global vanadium but produce only around 4%, a combined deficit of approximately 41kt of V2O5 per annum. There are insufficient Western primary pipelines to supply this deficit, and the few remaining Western producers rely on a vanadium-only production method that has proven uneconomic under sustained global pricing pressure. VR8’s co-production model monetises both iron and vanadium from a single orebody, the same method used to successfully produce around 80% of the world’s vanadium (predominantly in Russia and China). Steelpoortdrift has the capability to supply several markets of this critical metal.

Good

To Know

Annual demand for VFBs is expected to reach between 50kt and 100kt of V2O5 by 2033, up from around 9kt in 2022, largely driven by installations in China.  This represents a significant greater proportion of the expected supply of Vanadium compared to what is presently consumed.

Source: Project Blue 2023

Vanadium demand for steel is expected to grow strongly and may double by 2050, driven by China and India and increased production of micro-alloyed steel.

Source: Vanitec & TTP Squared Inc

Around 93% of global vanadium production comes from China and Russia, with China alone accounting for over two-thirds of mining and more than half of all processing.

 

Source: USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025Vanitec & TTP Squared Inc