Ann: TVN Acquisition of Speewah - Final Condition Satisfied, page-5

And this section at the end is the perfect example of why Grant is the right person at the right time to be leading our company. With considered lobbying of government what may have once been seen as an insurmountable capex figure could quite easily be turned into an important cog in achieving the 2050 net zero target. The Albanese government has decisions to make over the next 12 to 24 months that have the potential to radically shape the future of Australia. Here’s hoping they have the courage and vision that previous governments have lacked.

My company, Tivan Limited, plans to produce two critical minerals, vanadium pentoxide and titanium dioxide, at Middle Arm, using technology developed in conjunction with the CSIRO. Tivan’s Speewah resource in Western Australia has the potential to produce more than half of the global vanadium supply outside China and Russia, with a project life in the hundreds of years.The project is sufficient to develop a large-scale, modular vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) sector in Australia to progressively transition industrial facilities, towns and cities from coal and gas as primary sources of electricity. These sources represent around one-third of Australia’s carbon emissions, so abatement can make a significant contribution to reaching net zero.

While the consolidated efforts of government, industry, research and community will be required to ensure cost-competitiveness in the emerging grid battery sector, there’s no engineering or know-how constraint. We continue to collaborate with the CSIRO in the field of critical minerals processing, and the original patent for VRFB was secured by the University of New South Wales in 1986. The VRFB sector is now taking shape rapidly in China, reflecting the technology’s superiority for long-duration grid storage compared to lithium-based alternatives and pumped hydro.

ASPI’s upcoming Darwin Dialogue is a welcome opportunity to introduce key stakeholders to these initiatives and to highlight Australia’s capabilities in defining projects that are unambiguously in the national interest, central to the climate transition, and entirely sovereign in design and capability.