Electric Vehicles: Vanadium, rising star in Quebec

Hugo Fontaine, La Presse Newspaper, Montreal, July 31, 2010

The arrival of electric vehicles powered with lithium at the forefront of green technology and mining. But still

lurking in the shadows, vanadium may soon steal the spotlight. And Quebec mining is well placed to benefit.

In 2007, Subaru introduced its prototype electric vehicle G4e. The Japanese manufacturer has so enhanced the

technology of lithium-ion battery using vanadium, thereby increasing the battery life (200 km) and the load

speed.

This new application largely explains the renewed interest in mining exploration companies for vanadium,

metal largely unknown and untapped in North America.. As the chain lithium, Quebec is at the forefront of this

revival, particularly with Apella Resources. The small Vancouver company (14 million dollars of market

capitalization) has mainly placed his chips on two properties in Quebec.

Lac Dore, near Chibougamau, represents the second largest oil deposit in the world with 102 million tons of

ore. Vanadium is, and will probably used mainly for making steel in both stronger and lighter. But other

applications are promising. The metallic element can be used to make huge batteries for storing energy

produced in solar or wind power. “Compared with lithium, vanadium batteries charge very rapidly, can retain

their charge for several decades, and without the heat," said Patrick O'Brien, President and CEO of Apella. In

automobiles, batteries using lithium vanadium duo also have a greater energy capacity.

Quebec

The top three countries that extract vanadium mine, namely China, Russia and South Africa account for almost

the entire world mine production. But many of vanadium metal used as reinforcement in the steel sector is

obtained as a byproduct of iron production, and even oil production.

Except that the battery industry, believes Patrick O'Brien, manufacturers want to build long term relationships

with producers solids, which have control over the product, and not only rely on a secondary source of

vanadium . And mining producers are installed in countries where there are often problems of production,

recently noted the research firm CPM Group, New York.

Apella saw an opportunity. She first became interested in the Gold Lake property, but disputes with SOQUEM

on certain claims have slowed the heat of the company.

Apella has subsequently put his hand on the Iron-T property, near Matagami. Patrick O'Brien said he hoped that

the mineralized zone of Iron-T could one day be compared to 230 million tonnes of the world's largest deposit

in South Africa.

Argex is also in the running to operate the first vanadium deposit in North America with its property la Blache,

north-west of Baie-Comeau. But his plan focuses first on titanium.

The titles of Apella (APA) and Argex (RGX) exchange both at the TSX Venture Exchange. Ils . They closed at

12 cents respectively, and 31 cents on Friday.