Technology Metals Australia Ltd (ASX:TMT) has welcomed the further investment by its largest shareholder Resource Capital Fund VII L.P. (RCF) in the vanadium strategy being pursued vigorously in the Murchison region of Western Australia.
This comes after RCF became a substantial shareholder in fellow Murchison region vanadium player Australian Vanadium Ltd (ASX:AVL) with a 5.35% interest.
RCF remains TMT’s largest shareholder with a holding of 17.2% and there has been no change in its holding since having initially invested in the company in September 2021.
Largest holder of TMT and AVL
Resource Capital Fund VII is now the largest shareholder of both TMT and AVL based on public disclosures, having invested $13.5 million in TMT and $8 million in AVL for a total of investment of $21.5 million.
TMT is buoyed by RCF’s investment in AVL, which holds the under-development Australian Vanadium Project adjacent to TMT’s Murchison Technology Metals Project (MTMP).
Positive vanadium outlook
This reconfirms TMT’s positive outlook on the vanadium sector and the opportunity to create a world-class vanadium operation centred in the Murchison region.
TMT has a clear focus on the timely and efficient development of the 100%-owned Murchison Technology Metals Project to the benefit of all its shareholders and to deliver a secure, reliable supply of high-purity vanadium pentoxide to support the global transition towards net-zero.
About MTMP
The MTMP is 50 kilometres southeast of Meekatharra in the Mid-West region of Western Australia and is one of the highest-grade vanadium projects in the world, with planned production at 6% of current global vanadium demand.
MTMP has a global mineral resource estimate of 153.7 million tonnes at 0.8% vanadium pentoxide (V2O5), with an integration study incorporating high-grade ore from the Yarrabubba satellite deposit into the central processing hub at Gabanintha.
Completion of this integration study has facilitated the progression of the implementation phase of the MTMP and the move towards development, construction and operation of the project.
Supporting VRFB industry
MTMP will be a strategic, long-life asset supporting the nascent and fast-growing vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) industry.
VRFBs are rechargeable flow batteries that use vanadium in different oxidation states to store energy, using the unique ability of vanadium to exist in solution in four different oxidation states.
They provide an efficient storage and re-supply solution for renewable energy – being able to time-shift large amounts of previously generated energy for later use – ideally suited to micro-grid to large-scale energy storage solutions (grid stabilisation).