Australian Vanadium project in Mid West given $49 million injection by Federal Government

The Australian Vanadium project in the Mid West received a major boost last week with a $49 million Federal Government grant. The Department of Industry, Science and Resources offered the grant to Australian Vanadium Ltd (AVL) as part of the Modern Manufacturing Initiative – Manufacturing Collaboration Stream, to support and accelerate the project. The project is one of the most advanced vanadium projects in development globally, set up right in the Mid West. The high-grade deposit is located about 43km south of Meekatharra and the processing plant is just west of Mullewa. AVL managing director Vincent Algar said the Mid West region offered many advantages to the project. “The benefits for the Mid West are quite unique, the presence of gas pipelines very close to the City of Geraldton, the port space,” he said. “The uniqueness of the deposits in the hinterland, in particular the vanadium deposits around Meekatharra towards Sandstone.” The grant will help accelerate the timeline for the project where possible and provide more jobs for people. “This fund will help us bring more people into the team and in addition to our existing funds, and accelerate those steps,” Mr Algar said. “It’ll help us once we get obviously approvals is something you need in WA. . . approvals you can’t accelerate. “What you can do is make sure all your ducks are in a row. . . so using these funds to accelerate these things within the bounds of what Government will normally take its time to do.” The company applied for the grant in March 2022, which was recently received after a process of different applications being narrowed down one. Being the successful applicant shows obvious support from the Government into the project, Mr Algar said. “They recognise that vanadium is a quite critical mineral throughout the world. . . these countries need vanadium for day to day life,” he said. “For military defence and aerospace applications, and also in green energy storage space.” The $49m injection will be received in block payments, the first $9.8m was received on Tuesday, which Mr Algar said could be put to good use immediately. “This adds significantly and allows us to go ahead and then really accelerate the project delivery phase,” he said. “The Mid West has got a number of different hydrogen projects under way, one of the key parts is the incorporation of hydrogen into the process of refining the vanadium.” Mr Algar said the funds were very much welcome and would provide solid growth for both the AVL and Mid West. “We’ve worked extremely hard in the team to achieve this. . . it gives us such a head of steam to move on,” he said. “The region can grow. . . the more activity happens, whether it be hydrogen-based or renewable energy or projects like ours, I think all of those together make for a really strong regional city.”