Bushveld Minerals of South Africa may be the solution to the global supply difficulties for vanadium, a vital mineral required in utility size battery storage and a potential counterweight to EV range concern. Bushveld is one of the world’s three principal vanadium producers, producing about 3,600 metric tons of the metal each year from its mines in South Africa for usage in the steel, energy, and chemical sectors.
But a cash crunch in 2022/2023 forced Bushveld, which is listed in London, to divest some of their assets. In a statement issued in November 2023, Bushveld announced the sale of 50% of Bushveld Vanchem’s processing plant and their Mokopane vanadium project to Southern Point Resources (SPR) .While increasing their shareholding at Vametco Holdings to enhance their exposure to primary vanadium production, Bushveld Minerals also declared the commencement of the sale of their interest in CellCube, a grid-scale and micro-grid energy storage battery manufacturer based in Austria, as part of their strategy to “simplify the business and focus on core assets”, as per their LSE statement of November 2023.
According to their LinkedIn page, CellCube (also known as Enerox) is one of the world’s first and largest researchers, developers, manufacturers and distributors of vanadium redox flow batteries. As an industry leader in the energy storage sector, it has installed vanadium flow batteries at over 100 sites globally. In collaboration with renewable energy developer Kibo Energy, CellCube has inked a five-year framework agreement to deploy at least 1GW of storage in targeted Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries.
Bushveld’s operations in South Africa will carry on through BELCO. Bushveld Belco, situated in East London, South Africa, is a vanadium electrolyte production facility. The facility is a joint venture between Bushveld Energy (55%) and the state-owned IDC (45%). Notably, it is the largest publicly announced electrolyte plant outside of China. This plant is specifically designed to utilise vanadium oxide from Bushveld’s Vanchem operation as the primary feedstock provider, although oxide from Bushveld Vametco or non-Bushveld suppliers may also be utilized.
The rapid deployment of utility-scale variable renewable energy, along with the accelerated shutdown of baseload coal-fired units, has focused attention on vanadium-producing countries. Researchers have increasingly identified techniques to minimize the temperature sensitivity and high deployment costs associated with VRFB.
The rising need for long-term energy storage, provided by VRFB, comes as businesses encounter prolonged grid instability, leading to unpredictability in operations. Moreover, they are also compelled to meet net-zero targets through proactive carbon reduction efforts. Long-duration energy storage (LDES) technologies, when integrated with renewables, present a cost-effective and feasible solution for industrial decarbonization. High-profile industrial companies are already experimenting with these technologies due to the pressing need to lower carbon emissions.
