It’s taken a while for investors to realise the potential of vanadium in the battery metals race, but interest is starting to pick up.

The price of vanadium has rocketed 550 per cent in the past three years, outpacing other commodities, including the rival battery metals lithium and cobalt.

There are 35 small cap ASX stocks with exposure to vanadium according to resources data provider MakCorp.

Of these, 27 are ahead over the past 12 months — including King River Copper which is up 1440 per cent. Another half a dozen have made gains of 100 per cent to 384 per cent.

>> Scroll down for a list of ASX stocks with vanadium exposure, courtesy of leading ASX data provider MakCorp

About 90 per cent of global vanadium production is used to make high-strength steel, but future demand stems from its role in vanadium redox flow batteries (VRB), which can store more power and last much longer than lithium-ion batteries.

This makes it highly sought after for industrial and domestic energy storage, though it’s unlikely to be used in electric car batteries.

Chalice Gold enters vanadium market

Chalice Gold Mines (ASX:CHN) is the latest to put its foot on vanadium ground in Australia.

As a gold player, Chalice’s share price has tumbled 44 per cent since October last year.

But the company announced last week it has applied for exploration licences prospective for vanadium and nickel in Queensland and Western Australia.

Chalice executive chairman Tim Goyder told Stockhead investor interest was definitely starting to be realised in the vanadium space.

“Vanadium flow batteries are here to stay, like the lithium batteries are,” he said on the sidelines of the Resources Rising Stars conference in Queensland’s Gold Coast.

The only pure-play producers of vanadium are Toronto’s Largo Resources, which processes 1.4 million tonnes each year from its Vanadio de Maracás Menchen mine in Brazil, and Bushveld Minerals, which processes 2 million tonnes from the Vametco operations in South Africa.

Largo is now a $1 billion producer, while Bushveld has gone from a market cap of £20 million ($35.4 million) to roughly £250 million in just one year.

Chalice is looking for vanadium hosted in shale rather than the more common magnetite-hosted vanadium because it is much easier to mine.

“Historically around Richmond is the old Julia Creek area – the scene of a lot of work done during the oil crisis for oil shales,” Mr Goyder explained.

“Since then the oil market collapsed and in recent times the vanadium price has risen.

“It’s tripled over the last 12 months from $US6 ($8) a pound to over $US19 a pound, so vanadium is very much in demand, particularly shale-hosted vanadium.”

Chalice’s Flinders River vanadium project in Queensland surrounds the 2.6 billion tonne shale-hosted Richmond vanadium project owned by Intermin Resources (ASX:IRC).

Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR) also has ground in the region as well.

Intermin’s share price has climbed 80 per cent in the past year, while Liontown’s share price has jumped 207 per cent.

Here’s a list of ASX stocks with exposure to vanadium courtesy of leading ASX data provider MakCorp. (Scroll or swipe for full table)

Ticker Company One-year price change Price May 29 (intraday) Market Cap
KRC KING RIVER COPPER 14.4 0.077 86.7M
LTR LIONTOWN RESOURCES 2.07692307692 0.04 32.8M
RTR RUMBLE RESOURCES 1.90909090909 0.064 23.0M
AVL AUSTRALIAN VANADIUM 1.66666666667 0.04 62.5M
TMT TECHNOLOGY METALS AUS 1.025 0.405 22.9M
KOR KORAB RESOURCES 1 0.034 10.3M
RDS REDSTONE RESOURCES 0.909090909091 0.021 8.0M
IRC INTERMIN 0.808510638298 0.17 38.6M
ARU ARAFURA RESOURCES 0.75 0.098 57.0M
VMC VENUS METALS 0.704545454545 0.15 11.5M
SBR SABRE RESOURCES 0.5 0.015 5.5M
CZR COZIRON RESOURCES 0.5 0.018 32.1M
MTB MOUNT BURGESS 0.5 0.009 3.8M
GED GOLDEN DEEPS 0.466666666667 0.044 8.1M
SXX SOUTHERN CROSS 0.428571428571 0.01 10.8M
ACP AUDALIA RESOURCES 0.4 0.021 6.0M
PNN PEPINNINI 0.4 0.021 11.2M
NMT NEOMETALS 0.283018867925 0.34 182.1M
TON TRITON MINERALS 0.267857142857 0.071 58.4M
SO4 SALTAKE POTASH 0.227272727273 0.54 94.5M
SYR SYRAH RESOURCES 0.20728929385 3.18 945.8M
AUR AURIS MINERALS 0.203125 0.077 29.8M
MZN MARINDI METALS 0.2 0.012 21.4M
EME ENERGY METALS 0.1 0.11 23.1M
POW PROTEAN ENERGY 0.0967741935484 0.034 10.5M
TNG TNG 0.0769230769231 0.14 116.4M
SI6 SIX SIGMA METALS 0 0.012 5.5M
AEE AURA ENERGY -0.12 0.022 20.7M
CHN CHALICE GOLD -0.147058823529 0.145 37.9M
BAT BATTERY MINERALS -0.151515151515 0.056 53.3M
SRN SUREFIRE -0.176470588235 0.014 5.5M
LML LINCOLN MINERALS -0.466666666667 0.024 13.8M
MUS MUSTANG RESOURCES -0.536585365854 0.019 17.4M
PUR PURSUIT MINERALS -0.921289355322 0.105 6.9M
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Biggest ASX vanadium gainers

The biggest gainer in the vanadium space is King River Copper (ASX:KRC) with a 1440 per cent spike in its share price over the past 12 months.

Rumble Resources (ASX:RTR), Australian Vanadium (ASX:AVL) and Technology Metals Australia (ASX:TMT) have all more than doubled their share prices over the same period.

Tando Resources (ASX:TNO) newly acquired “SPD” vanadium project in South Africa is reporting high grades of over 2 per cent from magnetite pipes that are similar to the magnetite pipe once mined by Xstrata at the Kennedy’s Vale mine.

The stock — which recently underwent a 4.62-for-1 share split — more than doubled in March after Tando signed a deal to buy 74 per cent of South Africa’s  Vanadium Resources which owns SPD vanadium.

Paul Vollant from TNG (ASX:TNG) says vanadium redox batteries are gaining momentum with strong growth and worldwide commercial deployment.

The market forecast is for compound annual growth of 30.8 per cent between 2015 and 2020.

Mr Vollant says this represents a $US6 billion market opportunity in 2020.

TNG has already proven it can produce high purity, commercial-grade, vanadium electrolyte from its Mount Peake project in the Northern Territory.

Mount Peake is expected to produce 243,000 tonnes of vanadium pentoxide, 10.6 million tonnes of iron oxide and 3.5 million tonnes of titanium dioxide over a 17-year mine-life.

 

Stockhead is proud to use Mak Corp as a provider of great value, accurate and reliable data on ASX-listed mining stocks. For more information head to Mak Corp’s website.

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This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.