Highlights

  • The Western Australian Planning Commission has resolved to vary conditions of the Tenindewa approval.
  • The change followed a request for reconsideration from the company.
  • The approved built form, land use and operations are unchanged.
  • The update sits within a project spanning Tenindewa, Gabanintha and a battery subsidiary.

Australian Vanadium Limited (ASX:AVL) has reported a planning update for its vanadium processing Facility at Tenindewa in Western Australia's Mid West. The Western Australian Planning Commission (WAPC) has resolved to vary conditions of the development approval originally granted on 31 July 2025, following a request from the company for reconsideration. Formal written notification is still to follow. The company has emphasised that the reconsideration did not involve any change to the approved built form, land use or operational characteristics of the facility. This article outlines the update, the structure of the broader project and the resource base behind it.

What the WAPC Resolved at Tenindewa

The Tenindewa facility is located about 65 kilometres east of Geraldton in the Mid West region of Western Australia. Development approval for the vanadium processing facility was originally granted on 31 July 2025.

Following Australian Vanadium's request for reconsideration, the WAPC has resolved to vary conditions attached to that approval. The company has said formal written notification of the decision will follow, so the exact wording of the varied conditions is not yet set out in the announcement.

Importantly, the company states that the reconsideration did not involve any change to the approved built form, land use or operational characteristics of the facility. In other words, the process concerned the conditions attached to the approval rather than the design or purpose of the plant itself. Planning approvals commonly include conditions covering matters such as management plans and timing, and a variation can adjust how those requirements apply.

Project Structure: Tenindewa, Gabanintha and the Resource

The Australian Vanadium Project comprises two main components. The Tenindewa facility is the processing site, while the mine and concentrator are located at Gabanintha, near Meekatharra in Western Australia.

The resource at the project, reported on 7 May 2024, stands at 395.4 million tonnes at 0.77% vanadium pentoxide (V2O5). Within that total, a higher-grade portion of 173.2 million tonnes at 1.09% V2O5 has been defined.

Vanadium pentoxide is the standard way vanadium content is reported, and it is used in applications such as steel alloys and vanadium flow batteries. The resource figures quoted here are those previously reported by the company, and the planning update does not change them. The announcement does not provide timing for construction or production, and it does not outline funding arrangements.

VSUN Energy and the Battery Connection

The announcement also describes VSUN Energy, a 100%-owned Subsidiary of Australian Vanadium. Established in 2016, VSUN Energy operates in renewable energy and energy storage, with a focus on vanadium flow batteries.

Vanadium flow batteries store energy in liquid electrolyte containing vanadium, which is a different approach from lithium-ion technology and is often discussed in the context of longer-duration storage. The presence of VSUN Energy gives the group exposure to the battery end of the vanadium value chain in addition to the Mining and processing components.

Chief Executive Officer Graham Arvidson leads the company. The planning outcome at Tenindewa relates to the processing facility and does not directly concern VSUN Energy. However, the company presents all three elements, being the mine, the processing facility and the battery subsidiary, as part of the broader vanadium project described in this update.

Key Takeaways

The key point of the announcement is that the WAPC has resolved to vary conditions of the Tenindewa development approval following Australian Vanadium's request for reconsideration, with formal written notification to follow. The company has said the built form, land use and operational characteristics of the facility remain unchanged. The wider project includes the Gabanintha mine and concentrator near Meekatharra, a resource of 395.4 million tonnes at 0.77% V2O5, and the VSUN Energy battery subsidiary. Because the written notice is pending, further detail on the varied conditions will come from the company's subsequent communications.