CRITICAL MINERALS - VANADIUM
PRISM is Developing a World-Scale Portfolio of Critical Minerals
PRISM's Clear Hills resource, as reported in its NI 43-101 technical resource report, contains 2.45 billion pounds (1.11 million tons) of contained vanadium pentoxide.
Although ~90% of global vanadium supply is currently used within the steel making industry as an alloy, PRISM sees its unique properties for flow batteries as providing the greatest potential for long term revenue growth.
PRISM’s current production plans for its mine would result in the Clear Hills mine producing over 10% of current world Vanadium supply. Adding a safe, domestic supply to the global market will lower prices and incentivize adoption of vanadium redox flow batteries - providing a key component towards a successful energy transition.
Grid Storage: Vanadium Pentoxide / Vanadium Electrolyte
Vanadium's four positive valence states (+2 through +5)
Unlike other competing flow battery systems, a very high number of charges and discharges can occur in a VFB system without any significant decrease in capacity. The VFB has an 87 percent energy efficiency and its energy-holding electrolyte operates at room temperature and never wears out, making the VFB a environmentally-friendly energy storage system. The VFB is the only battery technology today capable of powering everything from a single home (kilowatt hour capacity) right up to the storage demands of a power grid (megawatt hour capacity) to help smooth out the unpredictable flow of energy generated by wind turbines and solar panels.
There have been considerable developments in the advancement of vanadium flow battery technology for grid storage applications. These advancements are expected to both reduce the size and cost of the VFB, and in turn, accelerate their implementation on a commercial level.
Image below: the Chinese port city of Dalian has installed a 100MW/400MWh VRFB battery system which can provide power for 200,000 residents for one day.
Flow Batteries - Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries (VRFB)
The anticipated cost increase of lithium-ion ESS options combined with a growing demand for longer duration energy storage (“LDES” with >8 hours) is driving interest in cheaper alternatives such as flow batteries.
Flow batteries, where the volume of energy storage is determined by the volume of the two electrolyte tanks, can scale to provide permit excellent energy storage capacity (i.e kWh) - but typically with lower energy delivery (i.e power in kW) as compared to lithium or other solid-state batteries.
The image below is of an “in-front-of-meter” grid level install of a flow battery storage unit installed by Sumitomo Electric (Redox Flow Battery | Sumitomo Electric).
The relatively high cost of Vanadium has deterred mass adoption. PRISM’s Clear Hills project would produce ~18,000 tons per annum of Vanadium (assuming mine scale for DRI supply to a typical steel mill) and at this production volume with predictable supply there will be an undoubted reduction in price of Vanadium. PRISM’s Clear Hills property includes a resource of 2.45 billion pounds of contained vanadium pentoxide. (557 million tonnes indicated at 0.21% V2O5 – NI 43-101 technical resource report by SRK Consulting (Canada) in July 2012).
Vanadium's four positive valence states (+2 through +5) make it such an excellent energy storage media. The VFB is chemically and structurally different from any other battery. It has a lifespan of tens of thousands of cycles, does not self-discharge while idle or generate high amounts of heat when charging, can charge and discharge simultaneously, and can release huge amounts of electricity instantly – over and over again.
VFBs are unique in their ability to meet specific energy storage and power demands of almost any size. Because the electrolyte that stores the energy in a VFB is housed in external tanks, it allows power and energy density to be scaled up independently of each other. Simply increasing the size of the tanks permits more power to be stored.
Balancing Electrical Power Supply and Demand
Although the dramatic and irreversible growth in renewable energy (RE) is significantly reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions renewable energy is unpredictable and intermittent (e.g. solar is cloud-affected, wind is affected by weather patterns). Efficient deployment of this new infrastructure therefore needs solutions to balance asynchronous supply and demand - for which there are two complementary strategic options - power distribution and energy storage.
Regional and international grid interconnections can even out weather effects and, when running east/west, shift peak solar supply (12:00 to 16:00) to match peak demand (17:00 to 21:00hrs).
Energy Storage Systems (ESS) are also ramping up, with Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) proving a vital piece of the solution.
Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS)
Although Lithium-ion batteries were largely expected to be used primarily in high value markets such as electric vehicles, price reductions from 2022 increased its economic viability for ESS.
Lithium-ion based battery packs (typically Lithium Iron Phosphate [LFP]) are now a proven safe and reliable technology for energy storage of between 2-8 hours both behind- and in-front-of- the meter.
Although this low-priced lithium has diverted attention from alternative ESS solutions - it has been beneficial in demonstrating ESS as a viable market. We anticipate that as demand for EVs grows the resultant lithium supply deficits will raise lithium prices - forcing a shift in focus for ESS options towards technologies and materials more suited to long duration energy storage (LDES).
The image below of a “behind-the-meter” Tesla Powerwall installation with a roof-top solar array exemplifies this market potential (Powerwall | Tesla Canada).
