Date: Mar 20, 2019
Vanadium is a medium-hard, steel-blue metal and is quite valuable in the manufacturing industry due to its malleable, ductile and corrosion-resistant qualities. Henry Ford used it in his cars and it was used to make portable artillery pieces and body armor in World War I.
Vanadium’s primary use is in steel hardening and with new Chinese laws making vanadium compulsory in rebar construction steel, the demand has increased. Vanadium alloys make extremely tough tools such as axles, car gears, springs, cutting tools, piston rods and crankshafts. Vanadium is also used in the aerospace industry to harden alloys and deliver super strength performance. Finally, there has been recent demand in the new era of vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) for large scale commercial energy storage, which has long been a challenge for the renewable energy sector.
The vast majority of mined vanadium ore comes from South Africa, Russia, and China. About 80 percent of the global vanadium produced is alloyed with iron to make a shock and corrosion resistant steel additive called ferro-vanadium.
Prophecy Development Corp. (TSX: PCY, OTCQX: PRPCF) has the most advanced primary vanadium deposit in the USA with their Gibellini Vanadium Project in Eureka County, Nevada, USA. The project has a compliant Measured and Indicated Resource of 22.95 million tons at 0.286% V2O5.
The Gibellini Vanadium Project
The Gibellini Vanadium Project is designed to be an open pit, heap leach operation and is about 25 miles south of the town of Eureka, Nevada. Prophecy has also recently announced that they have retained Amec Foster Wheeler E&C Services Inc. to undertake the updating of the mineral resource and mining section for the Company’s upcoming Feasibility Study (FS). The FS is anticipated to be completed by the end of 2019.
