Vancouver, British Columbia–(Newsfile Corp. – May 10, 2021) – VanadiumCorp Resource Inc. (TSXV: VRB) (OTC: VRBFF) (FSE: NWN) (the “Company”, “VanadiumCorp”) is pleased to announce it has commenced joint hydrometallurgical testing with Strategic Resources Inc. (TSXV: SR) (“Strategic”) using VanadiumCorp’s patented and proprietary green recovery process named the VanadiumCorp Electrochem Process Technology (“VEPT”) on titanomagnetite concentrate from Strategic’s wholly-owned Mustavaara Project in Finland. The ongoing prototype testing campaign is performed by Electrochem Technologies & Materials inc. (“Electrochem”) at its facilities in Boucherville, Québec, Canada. It will test whether the clean energy technology from VanadiumCorp is viable on Mustavaara’s material and could provide an alternative and more environmentally friendly way to extract vanadium and iron, versus the conventional smelting methods evaluated in the Preliminary Economic Assessment for the Project (see Strategic’s news release dated May 4, 2021). Vanadium end products produced by the VEPT process favour the rapidly emerging Vanadium Redox Flow Battery industry in contrast to the current flowsheet, which produces ferrovanadium used in the steel industry. In addition, the process offers the potential for commercial-grade titanium production as a third revenue stream for the Project.
Scott Hicks, CEO and Director of Strategic Resources, commented: “Our Mustavaara project could substantially benefit from the addition of a third revenue stream and potentially a lower capital, less carbon intensive way of extracting vanadium and iron. Our team believes in redox flow batteries and would be excited to gear our project towards the growing market.”
Adriaan Bakker, VanadiumCorp’s CEO, commented: “VanadiumCorp is excited to be working with Strategic, who has identified the potential of our patented green process technology. As the Mustavaara Project encompasses a formerly producing vanadium-iron- mine, it represents a potential paradigm shift toward green metallurgical recovery methods. Located in Finland, sustainable recovery of vanadium and other critical metals at Mustavaara would represent an exciting development in the region and the EU.”
VEPT is a patented and proprietary chemical process technology wholly owned by VanadiumCorp. Dr. Francois Cardarelli, from Electrochem Technologies & Materials Inc., invented VEPT in 2017 to address challenges in the metallurgical recovery of vanadium from a variety of feedstocks. The VEPT process was co-developed by Electrochem and VanadiumCorp over the past four years as a higher-yielding alternative to conventional methods that rely upon carbon- and energy-intensive pyrometallurgy. The VEPT process directly recovers source materials for the Vanadium Redox Flow Battery industry, such as vanadium pentoxide and vanadyl sulphate both precursors for producing vanadium electrolyte. Yields include a high-purity titanium by-product. VEPT is patent-protected in the USA and patent-pending in the key global jurisdictions of Canada, the EU, South Africa, Australia, and India. Testing of the VEPT process on a wide range of vanadiferous feedstocks is currently progressing at the bench scale.
About VanadiumCorp
VanadiumCorp Resource Inc. is an integrated green technology company with wholly owned vanadium-titanium-iron mineral deposits in Quebec, Canada. VanadiumCorp is focused on commercializing technologies to process mineral concentrates and produce vanadium electrolytes sustainably for Vanadium Redox Flow Battery “VRFB” systems. VRFBs are a 100% green technology from mine to battery when hydrometallurgical processes produce the vanadium feedstock. VRFB technologies improve renewable energy efficiencies by storing temporary energy surpluses and feeding them back into the electrical grid as required.
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