IGO is planning to trial a vanadium redox flow battery system at its Nova nickel-copper mine in Western Australia's Fraser Range that will be supplied free by Australian Vanadium's VSUN Energy subsidiary.

 

It's a potential win-win for both companies. 

 

Peter Bradford's IGO gets potentially cheaper power while substantially reducing diesel use, while Vince Algar's AVL gets to further develop markets for VRFB systems in Australia - and generate real world data from one of Australia's key miners.

 

The VRFB standalone power system will be used to power a bore pump with a target of 100% renewable energy use.

 

Optimisation of power for pumps is a key focus for VSUN across mining and agricultural markets.

 

The system to be installed at Nova will be based around a 300kWh VRFB from Spanish manufacturer E22 and will store and release power generated from solar cells, with a diesel generator for any periods of prolonged cloud cover.

 

AVL expects to achieve 85-90% renewable generation, which will reduce IGO's bore field carbon emissions, and should offer substantial reductions in operating hours for service personnel.

 

At the end of the 12-month trial, IGO has the option of maintaining the system, either with outright ownership or under a rental agreement.

 

AVL says the SPS will be redeployable for use on multiple mines sites and locations over its 20-plus year service life. 

 

Algar expects real-world deployment will deliver clear benefits and will hopefully support rapid market growth.

 

"Working with IGO on this project will accelerate the objectives of the companies and broader mining industry towards carbon neutrality. The robustness of VRFB energy storage makes it perfectly suited to the tough environments found on many Australian mine sites," Algar said.

 

IGO chief operating officer Matt Dusci said the company aspired to carbon neutrality, and that required leveraging renewable energy solutions

 

He described the Nova experiment as a "pilot", suggesting it could have applications to reduce emissions across IGO's mining and exploration operations, where it is focused on battery inputs such as nickel, copper, cobalt and lithium.

 

AVL is looking to develop its namesake Australian Vanadium mine at Gabanintha, near Meekatharra, but it is also making downstream investments such as a value-added vanadium electrolyte manufacturing plant at Kwinana capable of producing 33MWh of energy storage capacity for the VRFB sector.

 

In July it was awarded a A$3.7 million manufacturing grant from the federal government to help develop the SPS and a high purity processing circuit for its proposed mine. 

 

The company hopes to be in production before early 2024.

 

AVL argues VRFBs are particularly well suited to support SPS as they are non-flammable, so safer to operate in bushfire prone and other sensitive areas, and are more suited to high ambient temperatures.

 

AVL shares jumped 11% in early trade to 2.5c, valuing it at $75 million, while IGO shares opened steady at $9.34, capitalising it at $7 billion.