American Vanadium designs higher value vanadium product line

Monday, Jul 16, 2012

AMERICAN VANADIUM CORP. (“American Vanadium” or the “Company”) (TSX.V: AVC) (OTCQX: AVCVF) announces that the Company is engineering its process to include the production of higher valued vanadium products for the premium chemical and titanium alloying industries without increasing capital or operating costs. This decision is based on recent laboratory testing demonstrating the ability to produce high purity vanadium at its Gibellini Project located in Nevada.

“As we develop the only domestic vanadium mine, our overriding corporate objective remains to build the vanadium flow battery business in the US through partnerships with global technology leaders”

As the Company continues to make progress with the permitting process and detailed engineering design of the Gibellini Project, the Company will focus on producing vanadium electrolyte, powders, crystals and oxide pellets for premium markets such as grid scale flow battery systems, chemical and pollution control applications as well as for the aerospace and defense industry.

“As we develop the only domestic vanadium mine, our overriding corporate objective remains to build the vanadium flow battery business in the US through partnerships with global technology leaders,” said Bill Radvak, President and CEO of American Vanadium. “As the energy storage industry grows over time, it will consume an ever increasing percentage of our product mix as vanadium electrolyte. In the meantime, we can now increase project profitability by directing our product line towards other higher margin products rather than simply selling 'purple flake' to the steel industry.”

The US currently imports 100% of its raw vanadium products for use in the critical aerospace and chemical industries. The products come from countries such as Venezuela, Mexico, China and South Africa. Fifteen percent of the total vanadium consumption in the US (31 million pounds vanadium pentoxide equivalent per year) is consumed by the aerospace industry in the way of titanium vanadium aluminum alloys, while a further six percent is used in the chemical industry for critical products such as catalytic converters, sulphuric acid catalyst, etc. The Gibellini Mine is being designed to produce over 11 million pounds of vanadium pentoxide equivalent per year.

Source: Business Wire