Kegs, you wrote the post below & I will comment below:

"No doubt I agree that the Vanadium batteries will revolutionize the way we store and retrieve our power. I'm surprised to hear they are so close to producing them for the market. Do you know how much they would cost?

I'm still skeptical regarding the vanadium that Noront owns... take a look at what Truck mentioned... Energizer resources (formerly Uranium Star) with one of the largest known vanadium deposits in the world. Its in Madagascar (on the plains and not in the rainforest), it is over 21 km in length and quite a moderate concentration... close to rail and shipping, and in a mining friendly jurisdicition... but no mine yet... they've been trying for years.

I'm just pointing out that it is much more easily accessible than that of NOT and it hasn't been developed yet. Noront's vanadium will probably remain in the ground for a long time yet. It would be great though to see them use a clean power source like this as part of their operations... it shows good corporate responsibility. Hope the technology catches on so that it can go global... especially for the transportation sector... those poor oil companies would go titter."

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My comments,

I did not ask Ashlawn about price. Purchase price is only one component. You need to evaluate the "project price over a certain time period when comparing it to alternative sources of power.

For 30 megawatts of diesel power you are doing oil and filter changes every 500 hrs. A 1 megawatt diesel needs approx. 150 liters of fuel every hr. The maintenance costs are huge. Emissions are huge. You can clean it up and remove 98% of the emissions (an SCR system) for a price tag adder of approx. $275,000 per 1 Megawatt genset. Then you have maintenance costs on the SCR system. When you are doing your maintenance you have the genset out of service so you need extra gensets to pull the load. What I am trying to say is intial purchase price when you are looking at "Prime Power," is only one component of the overall power price.

Startup costs for a mine are high. Ask Cliffs about their chromite project. Yes, they have lots and lots of chromite...but what is the current worldwide demand? Who are the chromite customers currently buying from? What % of the market are they able to get RIGHT AWAY to help with the high startup costs of their project?

Noront has stated over and over again that they have the advantage because the nickel -copper-platinum- palladium is the "sweetener." This is a huge advantage. And the 2nd largest steel company in the world, BAOSTEEL, is not just a 9,9% shareholder but...a customer of product once the mine is open.

The world wide demand for Vanadium is 60,000 tonnes per year. BUT starting in 2013 demand will EXCEED supply. When demand exceeds supply ...price goes up. When price goes up the economics of a project get more attractive. It could be the reason the energizer project is taking so much time to get off the ground. Once the price moves up higher the project can get legs.

AGain, here is the Noront advantage. They are not a one trick Pony. They are a "GREEN SUPER STORE." I would describe them as a mutual fund in the mining world. If the price of palladium was to tank over night for some reason, you don't want to be a shareholder of a 100% palladium mine. Noront is diversified.

The fact that they can produce nickel for MINUS 71 cents because of copper, platinum , palladium credits is really something. Noront is the Wal-Mart of the metal world. It is a HUGE advantage against mining companies that have only one or two products in the ground AND are looking at mining a product with "current" low overall demand.

With Noront's mine opening up 2016 the demand for vanadium will be much much higher and prices will be much much higher too. They will be in a very good position.