Testwork for Tivan’s Speewah vanadium project in Western Australia has successfully met high-purity vanadium electrolyte (VE) specifications.
Tivan is currently focused on developing a conventional salt roast processing operation to produce vanadium products at Speewah.
One of Australia’s 31 critical minerals, vanadium’s demand is expected to grow due to its increasing use in renewable energy storage systems like redox flow batteries.
In January, Tivan produced high-purity vanadium pentoxide at a 99.86 per cent grade from Speewah without the need for solvent extraction.
Building off this success, the company used the high-purity vanadium pentoxide to conduct a VE testwork program at the University of New South Wales.
The program’s main aim was to demonstrate the preparation of a high-purity VE that met the specifications outlined by to Tivan by Japanese battery manufacturer Sumitomo Electric Industries.
Two VE samples were prepared, both of which met the specification for all 24 analysed impurities.
A commercial high-purity vanadium pentoxide used for electrolyte production was also converted to VE, demonstrating that Speewah vanadium pentoxide is suitable for VE production.
The successful VE testwork program coincides with Tivan’s Speewah fluorite project in WA delivering improvements in fluorite grades and recoveries earlier this week.
“Tivan has completed two major testwork programs this week that confirm Speewah’s status as Australia’s premier dual-resource critical minerals project,” Tivan executive chairman Grant Wilson said.
“With neither fluorite or vanadium in domestic production, the opportunity Tivan has to advance a staged-development project is unique and strongly aligned with the Federal Government’s Critical Minerals Strategy and National Battery Strategy.
“Our vanadium testwork program has confirmed the exceptional amenability of Speewah ore to traditional salt roast technology and the resulting vanadium electrolyte has now met the demanding specification provided by Sumitomo Electric Industries.
“Speewah has been confirmed as a unique sovereign endowment, ideally placed as a secure source of supply for Australia’s long-duration energy storage requirements.”
Tivan will now conclude its assessment of the two vanadium processing technology pathways under consideration for the Speewah vanadium project: TIVAN+ in strategic partnership with CSIRO and a conventional salt roast processing flowsheet.