American Vanadium seeks Japanese partner

Canada's mining and exploration company American Vanadium Corporation (AVC) is looking for tie-ups with Japanese firms for long-term supply contracts for vanadium from the company's wholly-owned project in Nevada, Japan Times reported.

AVC's Gibellini project, the first of its kind in the whole of North America, is scheduled to commence production in 2015, subject to environmental clearance from the US authorities.

Vanadium is used in diversified applications which include steel making, renewable energy storage, high performance batteries, catalysts and chemicals.

Vanadium steel has added strength and hardness and high-temperature stability, and it is used of making axles, gears and crankshafts.

The company has been actively looking for opportunities for off take agreements and vertical integration with both the steel production and renewable energy storage and battery industries.

AVC's president and chief executive officer Bill Radvak said in an interview, "We have received a lot of interest from Japan. We have been actively in discussion with companies looking at building vanadium flow batteries as well as steelmakers in Japan."