Here’s the link to the full report; https://tinyurl.com/yuzmu97y...

Here’s the link to the full report; https://tinyurl.com/yuzmu97y
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• WA Premier Roger Cook promise to cut vanadium royalties in half
• State gov recently committed to $150 vanadium battery project in Kalgoorlie
• WA players such as Australian Vanadium could be poised to benefit

Our High Voltage column wraps all the news driving ASX stocks with exposure to lithium, cobalt, graphite, nickel, rare earths, and vanadium.


Last week WA Premier Roger Cook announced plans to cut royalties on vanadium products – if re-elected. The move would incentivise the emerging industry along with a major battery investment the state’s leader claims will make Kalgoorlie-Boulder the “vanadium power house of WA”.


Vanadium is primarily used to strengthen steel but the metal has come into the spotlight in recent years due to its growing use in energy storage, with vanadium electrolyte a key component in vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFB).
As opposed to lithium batteries for electric vehicles, VRFBs are better suited to large scale applications (stationary storage), such as network support for electricity grid operators and telcos looking to power off-grid communications towers and utility scale installations.

Those batteries are forecast to play a central role in the energy transition, providing a long-term energy storage solution, and it looks like the state government is betting they will, killing two birds with one stone by trying to back-up the fragile Kalgoorlie power grid.
Frequent and prolonged blackouts in the gold capital have become a local election issue for Labor MP Ali Kent, who faces competition from Liberal challenger Rowena Olsen and independent (and former MP) Kyran O’Donnell – the Seat of Kalgoorlie has not been successfully defended by any party since 2005.

Important for vanadium explorers in other parts of the state, the re-elected Cook government is promising to halve the historic 5 per cent royalty on vanadium products to 2.5 per cent, the lowest tier. The onus is on making more things locally in WA.

The state government is also promising to maintain no royalty rate for vanadium electrolyte, with a similar strategy to that of lithium hydroxide, aiming to help stimulate growth in the sector.
“With our Made in WA plan, we’ll invest in local battery manufacturing and create thousands of local jobs,” Premier Cook said.
“These policy settings to cut the royalty rate are about ensuring we can support a full supply chain from WA mines to WA-made batteries, powering WA homes and businesses.
“We know that Kalgoorlie-Boulder is a big contributor to WA’s economy and we need to continue to invest, undertake diversification projects and sustain job-building initiatives, and this is what we’re doing.”


WA carving out a slice of the market

Western Australia has one of the world’s largest vanadium deposits with potential to be developed south of Meekatharra in Australian Vanadium’s (ASX:AVL) namesake project, which is expected to be a source of local vanadium supply in the future.
AVL plans to build an open cut mine at **anintha as well as a vanadium oxide processing plant at Tenindewa, inland from the port city of Geraldton – and certainly looks set to benefit from a re-elected Labor Government.
The company’s project hosts a resource estimate of 395.4Mt at 0.77% V2O5 and has already been granted Major Project Status by the state government, along with Environmental Protection Agency approvals.
Plus, AVL is also planning to build a utility scale vanadium flow battery called Project Lumina.
Cook also recently promised to build a $150 million Australian-first 50-megawatt 10-hour WA made vanadium battery project in Kalgoorlie which is expected to drive growth in the emerging vanadium industry and stimulate opportunities for downstream processing and exports.
Adding to its vanadium election promises, the state government has also committed to delivering a WA-first residential battery scheme with a $387 million investment to help WA families purchase residential batteries and save up to $1500 on their power bills every year.
Having virtually wiped out the opposition Liberal Party in the 2021 state election, Cook’s Labor is expected to win Saturday’s vote comfortably but cede ground, especially in previously Blue Ribbon seats.



AMEC welcomes vanadium incentive

The Association of Mining and Exploration Companies CEO Warren Pearce said the decision creates a powerful incentive for companies to invest in going down-stream and developing electrolyte – the key ingredient in vanadium batteries.
“The opportunity for Western Australia to value-add to our vanadium, make vanadium electrolyte, and build vanadium batteries in Western Australia, for use here in Western Australia and Australia, is an opportunity too good to miss,” he said.
“Today’s announcements ensure that Western Australia will have the economic and regulatory framework in place for this to happen.”
The promised Household Battery Scheme will also help create a domestic demand for vanadium batteries, Pearce said.
“These commitments, combined with the Commonwealth’s Critical Minerals Production Tax Incentive (which AMEC also lobbied for), create a powerful incentive to deliver a local vanadium battery industry in Western Australia,” he said.
“This commitment will help attract investment in vanadium projects, and the value-adding required to make vanadium electrolyte and vanadium batteries. AMEC has been working closely with the Government and vanadium members over the past four years to find ways to support this emerging market.
“We are delighted to see WA Labor recognise the potential of this industry, and the benefits that it will deliver for Western Australia.”



Who are the other players in WA?

Also set to benefit from these election promises in WA is Viking Mines (ASX:VKA) which is progressing the Canegrass battery minerals project in the Murchison region – an outcropping hard-rock vanadium magnetite project – with a pit constrained resource of 61Mt grading 0.81% V2O5 and 35.9% iron.
This is currently envisioned as a 1.5Mtpa project that can produce vanadium for 20-60 years.
Metallurgical testwork has also succeeded in the production of V2O5 flake with work underway to roast the remaining magnetic concentrate to optimise and further purify and enhance the product.

Other companies with vanadium assets in WA include Venus Metals (ASX:VMC) with its Youanmi project that hosts a vanadium resource of 135Mt at 0.34% V2O5 and Neometals (ASX:NMT) with the 280Mt at 0.44% V2O5 Barrambie project, where it is attempting to divest the vanadium/titanium resource as it focuses on gold exploration.



Could Queensland follow suit?

QEM (ASX:QEM) has also been progressing its Julia Creek vanadium and oil shale project in Queensland, which has a resource of 461Mt grading 0.28% V2O5 in the higher confidence indicated category. Indicated resources can be used in future reserves and mine planning.
Another 2406Mt at 0.31% V2O5 sits within the inferred category, which highlights the sheer scale of the project.
It includes best estimate (2C) contingent oil shale resource of 92 million barrels of oil equivalent that is a valuable co-product in its own right.
A recent scoping study highlighted a 30-year mine schedule with a production target of approximately 10,571 tonnes of vanadium pentoxide (99.95% pure) and 313 million litres of transport fuel per annum over the life of mine.

In the same neighbourhood is Richmond Vanadium Technology (ASX:RVT) with its Richmond-Julia Creek project, which consists of five tenements covering 1403km2 and an ore reserve of 459.2Mt at 0.49% V2O5 at the Lilydale deposit.
This shallow ore reserve lends itself to the development of an open cut, free dig vanadium mining operation and is the subject of a pre-feasibility study outlining a project mining 101.5Mt of ore to produce 317,500t of V2O5 flake with a purity of 98%.
Capex is estimated at $242.2m with net present value and internal rate of return – both measures of a project’s profitability – estimated at $613m and 38% respectively.
A bankable feasibility study is due for completion in the June quarter of 2025, along with results from pilot plant test work.
The company has also commenced discussions to secure potential grant funding from federal and state governments to enable development of a proposed Vanadium flow battery demonstration plant in Queensland.