The Australian government has recognized TNG’s flagship Mount Peake Project – a mine that includes production plans for vanadium redox flow batteries and green hydrogen – as nationally significant.
TNG’s Mount Peake Vanadium-Titanium-Iron Project (Mount Peake Project) in Australia’s Northern Territory – the world’s most advanced vanadium mine – secured “major project status” from the federal government on Monday.
The project spans two separate sites, including a mine located 235 km north of Alice Springs and a processing facility in Darwin’s investment priority area, the Middle Arm Precinct. Perth-based TNG describes the project as a “world class multi-commodity resource with in-country value adding.”
The project is set to annually produce around 6,000 tons of vanadium pentoxide to be used for vanadium redox flow batteries and steel strengthening, as well as massive quantities of iron oxide and titanium pigment. This will be done through TNG’s patented TIVAN process, which the company says allows it to “overcome limitations of the conventional processing.”
Last year, Perth-based TNG set up its own green-focused subsidiary, TNG Energy. The company is now developing applications for vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs). But TNG is not the only Australian company vertically integrating its vanadium-based projects. In 2016, Australian Vanadium set up a subsidiary, VSUN Energy, to drive market demand for VRFBs and help raise capital needed to open its Western Australian vanadium mine.
“It takes a lot of time to become an overnight success,” VSUN’s business development manager, Samantha McGahan, told pv magazine Australia.
Yet with its flagship project recognised for being strategic significant by both the federal government and the Northern Territory authorities, TNG’s Mount Peake Project is clearly leading Australia’s vanadium crusade.
The company is also keen to jump aboard the country’s green hydrogen craze. In September, TNG said it would partner with German strategic engineering company SMS Group to develop carbon-neutral technology and produce green hydrogen. The agreement is part of the company’s bid to optimize its Mount Peake Project, TNG said at the time.
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