Refining multiple elements from a single ore is tricky for a number of reasons, but primarily, the extraction process gets significantly longer and more complicated with each additional consideration, often to an uneconomical degree. Moreover, conventional methods most frequently involve smelting and/or roasting as part of the separation process, releasing large quantities of CO₂ and other potentially harmful gases through combustion of the ore as well as the fossil fuels burned to power the whole affair; major gaps exist in many metals-refining markets for technologies capable of minimising the environmental footprint of separating out the period table.

Driving down costs is, of course, a leading concern for all businesses, but particularly for those resource companies in ownership of polymetallic deposits; any company that cracks cheap and clean extraction of multiple end products surely has a considerable edge over its competitors. VanadiumCorp Resource Inc. (TSXV: VRB) (“VanadiumCorp”) may have achieved exactly that with their integrated model for producing vanadium, titanium and iron utilising only electrochemical processes. Add this to the fact that Quebec offers cheap hydroelectricity and you get a low-cost and environmentally friendly polymetallic extraction of three valuable industrial metals.

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