Bushveld Minerals aims to finish prep for VRFB by new year

29th Nov 2018 08:34

(Sharecast News) - Vanadium producer Bushveld Minerals now expects preparatory work on the battery commissioning portion of its maiden vanadium redox flow battery project to be wrapped up by the end of next month.Bushveld said the delay in its Eskom project, which is co-owned by the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa, was a result of an unexpected contamination of electrolytes during the filling stage, which was discovered during system commissioning that made the VRFB inoperable.The AIM-listed firm noted that, without a mixed-acid electrolyte facility in South Africa, filtration of the electrolyte in-country was not possible. A remediation strategy was implemented in August to replace the electrolyte and certain contaminated components of the system and site work began in October, with commissioning following shortly behind at the end of November.Chief executive Mikhail Nikomarov, said: "The third quarter of this year and events following immediately afterwards, have proven beyond doubt that the market for battery storage in both South Africa and Africa overall is significant and immediate.""Our business plan, anchored in a low cost scalable primary production platform, will allow us to maximise value for Bushveld and its shareholders along the VRFB value chain, and therefore realise the company's vision of a deeply vertically integrated vanadium platform."As of 0830 GMT, Bushveld shares had picked up 2.92% to 44p.