Prophecy Development to build North America’s first primary vanadium mine
Date: Apr 11, 2018
CORPORATE PROFILE
Prophecy team and its partners on top of Gibellini March 2018
While vanadium has been used to strengthen steel for decades, recently it has gained importance in the energy metals sector. The development of vanadium redox flow batteries is set to play a key role in storing electric power on a grid scale, thus solving the problem of storing power from intermittent sources such as wind turbines and solar panels.
Vanadium redox flow batteries are scalable, not flammable and do not gradually lose their capacity, which should mean longer working lives (20 years) and therefore lower costs. Other growing applications include pollution reduction catalysts, super-conducting magnets, solid-state car batteries, and automobile chassis.
According to a January 2018 Bloomberg article, the vanadium pentoxide price soared more than 130% in 2017, outperforming better-known battery components such as cobalt, lithium and nickel. Vanadium pentoxide is currently trading at US $14/lb. It has been forecast that the global energy storage market will double six times between 2016 and 2030.
Envisaging how vanadium redox battery developments will play out in the near future, Prophecy Development Corp.’s business plan is to advance the leased Gibellini primary vanadium mining project in northeastern Nevada to production. There are not many primary vanadium deposits and Prophecy is fortunate to have acquired the advanced-stage, road-accessible Gibellini Project, located about 25 miles south of Eureka in the Battle Mountain region, one of the best mining jurisdictions in the world. As there is not a primary vanadium mine in the country, the U.S. Geological Survey has listed vanadium as one of 23 critical mineral resources.
A November 2017 independent report prepared by consultants Amec Foster Wheeler E&C Services Inc. on the Gibellini Project stated there is an estimated 49.62 million pounds of vanadium pentoxide in the measured category and 79.67 million pounds of vanadium pentoxide in the indicated category, plus 37.27 million pounds inferred.
