Australian Vanadium has put its hands up to build a big battery storage system in Kalgoorlie. The company plans to produce the key ingredient — vanadium electrolyte — using its own technology and plant for that battery. It believes that the Kalgoorlie battery will provide a role model for how vanadium batteries can be used elsewhere around Australia.

Graham Arvidson is Chief Executive Officer of Australian Vanadium Limited. He is a highly respected executive with more than two decades of experience across the Australian and international resource and energy sectors, spanning project studies, design, construction, commissioning and operations management.

Before joining Australian Vanadium in 2022, Graham held senior leadership roles with IGO, Primero Group and Pilbara Minerals, building a track record in successful project development, operational optimisation and mineral processing operations. His background includes direct experience in vanadium, lithium and broader energy markets, positioning him to lead Australian Vanadium’s vertically integrated “pit-to-battery” strategy.

Graham holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Alberta, an MBA and MSc in Mineral Economics from Curtin University, and is a Chartered Professional Metallurgist and Chartered Professional Engineer.

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The Hole Truth: Mining Investment Podcast is a product of Read Corporate.

Please note that Read Corporate does not provide investment advice and investors should seek personalised advice before making any investment decisions.

Australian Vanadium is competing to deliver a proposed 500MWh vanadium flow battery in Kalgoorlie, supported by a WA Government initiative designed to strengthen regional energy security. If successful, the project would become one of the largest vanadium flow batteries outside China and could establish the first commercially bankable Western model for utility-scale vanadium energy storage.

The company’s integrated structure — spanning vanadium mining, electrolyte production and battery deployment — is designed to create supply chain advantages and cost efficiencies. AVL already operates a commercial vanadium electrolyte plant in Perth, giving it a significant first-mover advantage in Australia’s emerging flow battery market.

Unlike lithium-ion batteries, vanadium flow batteries experience virtually no degradation over time, allowing them to maintain capacity across decades of operation. Graham Arvidson explains that this makes the technology particularly suited to infrastructure-grade storage applications requiring long-duration performance, high cycling capability and asset lives extending beyond 20 years.

Australian Vanadium believes vanadium flow batteries are particularly well suited to remote and high-temperature environments such as the Pilbara and northern Australia, where lithium technologies can face operational limitations. The company sees significant long-term opportunities in mining regions, regional grids and industrial energy systems that require reliable long-duration storage.

The conversation highlights growing global demand for large-scale energy storage driven by AI data centres and grid stability requirements. Vanadium flow batteries are attracting attention because of their non-flammable chemistry, scalability and ability to sustain frequent charge-discharge cycles without capacity fade — characteristics increasingly valued in critical infrastructure applications.

Firefly Metals (ASX: FFM) owns the Green Bay Copper-Gold Project in Canada. It's been one of the great success stories in this space over the past two years. Another resource update and economic studies are pending, and the company has just completed the sale of its Pickle Crow Project to Bellavista. Firefly shareholders will get a chunk of Bella Vista shares, and Firefly will be a major shareholder in Bella Vista.

Steve Parsons is the Managing Director of Firefly Metals. He has extensive experience in the mining and resources sector, with a strong track record of advancing high-quality mineral projects through exploration, development, and production stages. Parsons is widely recognised for his operational expertise and his focus on value creation through disciplined capital allocation and aggressive exploration strategies.

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The Hole Truth: Mining Investment Podcast is a product of Read Corporate.

Please note that Read Corporate does not provide investment advice and investors should seek personalised advice before making any investment decisions.

Aggressive Drilling Strategy Driving Resource Growth Firefly Metals has rapidly scaled its exploration efforts from a single rig to 10 active drill rigs across the Green Bay project. This includes seven underground rigs focused on infill and step-out drilling, and three surface rigs targeting regional opportunities. The intensity of drilling underpins consistent news flow and resource expansion, a key driver of market re-rating in the resources sector.

High-Grade Core Enhancing Project Economics Within the broader ~80Mt resource base, Firefly has identified a high-grade core approaching 20Mt grading 3–4% copper, with zones exceeding 5–7%. This material is expected to be mined early, significantly boosting project NPV and early cash flow. The presence of such high-grade zones positions Green Bay as a potentially tier-one copper-gold asset.

Clear Development Path with Scalable Production Profile An upcoming Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) will outline a low-capex, 1.8Mtpa startup operation leveraging existing infrastructure, including hydroelectric power and port access. Importantly, the study will also demonstrate scalability to 3–5Mtpa or beyond, highlighting long-term growth potential and multi-decade mine life.

District-Scale Exploration Upside Remains Underexplored Firefly controls an entire volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) district, where deposits typically occur in clusters. With regional drilling set to accelerate in the second half of the year, the company is targeting repeat discoveries that could materially expand the resource base and transform the project into a globally significant mining camp.

Bellavista Transaction Unlocks Hidden Value for Shareholders The divestment of the Pickle Crow gold project into Bellavista provides Firefly shareholders with direct equity exposure via an in-specie distribution. Firefly retains ~10% ownership, maintaining upside while reallocating capital to Green Bay. The involvement of proven operators and a well-funded exploration plan increases the likelihood of value creation from this secondary asset.

As the Western world looks for non-Chinese supplies, Sky Metals has an abundance of both tin and tungsten at the Tallebung Project in New South Wales.

Guest bio Mr Davies joined SKY as a geologist in 2019. He was appointed to Exploration Manager in 2021, then to CEO in early 2022 and subsequently to Managing Director in September 2024. Prior to SKY, Mr Davies was in exploration and operational roles with Evolution Mining and Alkane Resources in NSW and Qld. Mr Davies has worked closely on several successful NSW discoveries including Evolution Mining’s significant expansion of the Lake Cowal gold resource and with Alkane’s regional exploration success at Tomingley and Boda.

Produced by Resource Media

The Hole Truth: Mining Investment Podcast is a product of Read Corporate.

Please note that Read Corporate does not provide investment advice and investors should seek personalised advice before making any investment decisions.

Key Insights

Tallebung is evolving into a dual-commodity development story. What was previously framed primarily as a tin project is increasingly being positioned around both tin and tungsten, with management indicating tungsten could contribute roughly half of future project revenue. That shift matters because Tallebung already reports tungsten in its mineral resource, and Sky says the existing flowsheet can recover both products with only a final dressing stage.

Tin’s supply-demand setup remains central to the investment case. Oliver Davies points to structural supply constraints and growing demand from electronics, data centres, solar technologies, and emerging battery applications as the core drivers behind stronger tin pricing. Sky’s broader corporate positioning is aligned with that thesis, describing tin as essential to semiconductors, electronics, and solar PV, which reinforces the strategic logic behind advancing Tallebung in New South Wales.

Tungsten adds strategic leverage to Western critical minerals supply chains. The episode highlights tungsten’s rising importance in defence and technology markets, particularly as Western buyers seek supply chains with less reliance on China. Sky’s own published Tallebung resource includes WO3 as a likely significant by-product, which gives investors exposure to a second critical mineral without fundamentally changing the project’s development pathway.

Tallebung’s open-pit, ore-sorting-led design points to a lower-cost development model. A key operational advantage discussed in the interview is the project’s shallow, open-pit geometry and the suitability of the mineralisation for XRT ore sorting followed by gravity separation. Sky states this approach can materially upgrade feed grade before concentration, supporting the company’s argument that Tallebung could become a near-term, low-cost tin development with added tungsten and silver credits.

Near-term catalysts are concentrated around resource growth and study work. The interview points to an updated mineral resource estimate and pre-feasibility study work as the main near-term newsflow, alongside ongoing drilling and metallurgical optimisation. That matches Sky’s stated project pathway of advancing drilling, resource confidence, metallurgical testing, and mining studies in parallel, giving the market several potential re-rating milestones rather than a single binary catalyst.