It is reported that the prices for vanadium have been rising since the bottom fell out of the world markets in 2008. The outlook for vanadium is healthy on the back of increasing steel demand and also because the use of vanadium in battery technology.
The use of vanadium in batteries geared towards hybrid vehicles has tremendous growth potential, as well as its use in vanadium redox flow batteries. These batteries were highlighted in an article on Vanadium Investing News last week. Many mining juniors are actively pursuing new resources to capitalize on these new developments, in a market that has the potential to expand dramatically.
Vanadium mining is a tricky business. The metal is never found in its metallic form, instead it occurs in tandem with over 150 various minerals, crude oil deposits, coal, tar sands, and also as a byproduct of uranium mining.
Apella Resources Inc recently announced that one of the inventors of the
redox flow battery is joining their advisory board.
Australian Professor Skyllas Kazacos is well known worldwide as the scientific researcher and pioneer who is credited with the invention of the Vanadium Redox Battery. With the addition of Professor Skyllas Kazacos the company is hoping to develop its Vanadium Iron Titanium assets for their use in battery technology.
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Intermin Resources - ASX: IRC must be smiling as they have a Vanadium - Molybdenum deposit and Molybdenum is also in increasingly higher demand. "The versatility of molybdenum in enhancing a variety of alloy properties has ensured it a significant role in contemporary industrial technology, which increasingly requires materials that are serviceable under high stress, expanded temperature ranges, and highly corrosive environments. Moreover, molybdenum finds significant usage as a refractory metal in numerous chemical applications, including catalysts, lubricants, and pigments. Few of molybdenum's uses have acceptable substitutions. World resources = ~20mt.
USGS 2011)
IRC has ~1.3mt Molybdenum resource. Moly Mines has 441,000t)