Tivan has produced high-purity vanadium pentoxide (V₂O₅) at 99.86 per cent grade at its Speewah vanadium project in Western Australia – without the need for solvent extraction.
Announced in February 2024, the test work is aimed at assessing the commercial viability of processing Speewah’s vanadium titanomagnetite (VTM) ore for vanadium flow batteries (VFB).
The resultant V₂O₅ is now being tested at the University of New South Wales to meet specifications set by Sumitomo Electric Industries for vanadium electrolyte. Results are expected in the first quarter of 2025.
Tivan is pursuing two vanadium processing pathways for the project: its TIVAN+ technology in partnership with CSIRO, and a conventional salt roast flowsheet. According to the company, preliminary results for both approaches have been promising.
Desilication and purification trials in the salt roast pathway highlighted effective methods for achieving high-purity vanadium.
The selected alternative purification process, which avoids the added costs of solvent extraction, produced high-quality ammonium metavanadate with minimal vanadium losses.
A total of 35kg of Speewah concentrate was bulk trial tested, with the final vanadium pentoxide product meeting its high purity target of 99.86 per cent of V₂O₅.
“The outstanding test work results achieved by Tivan’s process engineering team confirm Speewah’s status as Australia’s premier VTM resource and the technical viability of the pathway to supply vanadium flow batteries at scale,” Tivan executive chairman Grant Wilson said.
“Speewah’s comparative advantages include high vanadium in concentrate grade, low strip ratio, close proximity to port, and vast size.
“In addition, the Speewah fluorite project will introduce enabling infrastructure to the site location, further reducing project costs and establishing a durable social licence to operate in the east Kimberley region.”
Wilson said while the commercial pathway to develop a vanadium project in Australia remains challenging, the test work results and its rapid progress with the Speewah fluorite project is putting Tivan in pole position.
“We will continue to advance the project development pathway, ensuring that the Speewah vanadium project contributes to Tivan’s sum of parts valuation and in support of the development of long-duration energy storage capabilities across northern Australia,” he said.
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