Australian Vanadium Limited (AVL) has recently opened a landmark vanadium electrolyte manufacturing facility in the northern Perth Suburb of Wangara.

Federal Resources Minister Madeleine King (centre) with Australian Vanadium director Anna Sudlow, chairman Cliff Lawrenson, chief executive Graham Arvidson and director Miriam Stanborough. Pic: Supplied (AVL)

The newly established facility has the capacity to generate as much as 33MWh of high-purity electrolyte each year, serving as a crucial source to fulfill the increasing needs of the vanadium flow battery (VFB) market.

Australian Vanadium intends to establish itself as the premier and largest source of vanadium electrolyte within the country, leveraging its project located in the Murchison region of Western Australia.

The goal is to contribute five percent of the world's existing vanadium supply from this specific site.

Merging with orebody neighbour Technology Metals Australia, Australian Vanadium will consolidate the two company’s extensive orebodies into 15 tenements across 200 square kilometres of vanadium-rich land.

“This merger allows us to increase our project life from 25 years to 50 years, which gives us a long runway to be able to supply vanadium both domestically and internationally,” Australian Vanadium chief operating officer Todd Richardson told Australian Mining.

AVL was awarded $3.69 million grant from the Australian Federal Government in 2021.

The design of the plant was based on the reputable electrolyte manufacturing technology utilised by US Vanadium (USV), a prominent provider of vanadium electrolyte in the North American market.

The anticipated surge in demand for vanadium electrolyte is projected to accelerate in the upcoming years, especially within the Asia-Pacific region.

Forecasts suggest that the annual energy capacity of VFBs is poised to reach approximately ~14.5GWh by the year 2031.