Strategic Resources is a growth platform for the emerging vanadium space. The company is based out of Vancouver, BC, and is a part of the Lumina Gold Corp. which primarily focuses on gold and copper assets.
Strategic Resources is primarily working in tier 1 jurisdictions. Its main asset is a Brownfield project called the Mustavaara Vanadium-Iron Mine in Finland.
The Mustavaara Mine is a historic resource that was under production in the 70s and 80s. The company is looking to restart the production at this site. The company looks at it as an exciting opportunity for the Vanadium market from the junior developers' side.
Strategic Resources is looking to build its Vanadium assets as it's a growing market. The Mustavaara Mine is the company's first advanced stage project. They also have the Silasselkä Project in Finland, where economic studies are being carried out.
Strategic Resources is looking for M&A opportunities while simultaneously gaining entry into the Vanadium market.
Vanadium is primarily used in the construction sector, primary steel to increase its overall strength. There's significant growth potential in the energy storage and the battery market as Vanadium Redox batteries have been in production for a long time.
Strategic Resources is looking to scale up the production of these batteries over the long term. Currently, Vanadium has a 100,000t/ year supply market and the company is looking to gain a 2% market share in the space.
Finland offers several benefits such as carbon-free power, cheap electricity, and port access which further improves the ease of doing business.
Strategic Resources put of a base case for the brownfield asset in 2020 and worked on production through a smelter case. The company is looking into leaching as an alternative to the smelting process as it will drastically reduce the CapEx while offering the recovery for higher-grade vanadium, iron and also add titanium recovery to the mix.
The leaching program is being carried out in a JV with Vanadium Corp., based out of Vancouver. The leaching program will allow the extraction of Vanadium Pentoxide, which is ideal for use in batteries.
Strategic Resources has a 15 years claim on the asset, a 150 million ton resource with a 43-101 in place. It features lots of historic data, along with 60 tons of concentrate in storage from past production.
Strategic Resources raised $2.5M in capital so far. The company plans to supply the iron in Europe and North America and the vanadium in Europe, Russia, and China.