Bushveld to focus on growth at vanadium, coal assets this year
Following the achievement of significant development milestones during 2017, integrated vanadium producer Bushveld Minerals will focus on enhancing growth at its vanadium and coal assets this year.
“There is a unique window of opportunity for the company to position itself as a large, vertically integrated and low-cost vanadium platform . . . and we want to realise that potential,” Bushveld Minerals CEO Fortune Mojapelo tells MiningWeekly.
He stresses that the completion of the acquisition of Bushveld Vametco in December 2017 enables Bushveld to “more meaningfully” leverage the vanadium platform as the company continues its expansion plans in terms of organically growing Vametco laterally and vertically.
Vametco currently enjoys a significant 3.5% market share of the global vanadium market, which is expected to grow to more than 5% on completion of the three-phased expansion project. Bushveld completed the first phase of the expansion at Vametco in time and under budget in the September 2017 quarter to achieve a yearly production run rate of 3 000 metric tonnes of vanadium (MTV).
The second phase, currently within budget and on schedule for completion in June, will result in production increasing to 3 750 MTV. The third phase, to be completed by 2019, will result in production increasing to more than 5 000 MTV.
In parallel, Bushveld will continue focusing on enhancing growth by targeting brownfield opportunities in South Africa, says Mojapelo.
Meanwhile, vertical growth is driven by the company’s interest in developing “a deeply integrated vanadium platform” by not only producing vanadium but also diversifying the product portfolio through the supply of electrolytes for vanadium redox flow batteries for the energystorage sector.
