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Australia’s Vanadium Resources said on Thursday it entered into a memorandum of understanding with China’s Panjin Hexiang New Materials Technology to supply 4,000 tons per annum for vanadium pentoxide for an initial five-year term.
The deal represents a supply of about 37% of Vanadium Resources’ planned annual flake production capacity from the first phase of its Steelpoortdrift and Tweefontein operations in South Africa.
The company said it is concurrently in talks for further offtake agreements with Chinese, Japanese, Korean and European end users and traders for the remaining production balance from the operations.
The non-binding agreement, which includes an option to extend for another five years, provides a framework for further negotiations on price, product quality and other offtake parameters, the company said.
“VR8 is attracted to Hexiang’s processes to take vanadium pentoxide and produce vanadium-nitrogen alloys for use in the steel industry,” CEO John Ciganek said in a statement.
The addition of vanadium nitride to steel can improve its mechanical properties, such as strength, and the alloy is used in steel bars and cast iron.
(By Sherin Sunny; Editing by Alan Barona)
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