Uranium Star is targetting a 200 Mt minimum resource for the Green Giant vanadium project in Madagascar. It now has 100% ownership of the 194 km², 22.5 km long property, in which the Green Giant project is situated. Vanadium, like lithium that is a co-component of certain high tech batteries, could be becoming a very sought after metal. Only last week President Obama awarded the inventor of the V₂O₅-Li-Ag battery used in implantable cardiac defibrillators, Esther S. Takeuchi, the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, America’s highest honour for technological achievement. The Company has been able to verify that there is an extensive stratigraphic zone that hosts the majority of vanadium mineralisation defined to date at Green Giant. This, it says, “can be readily interpreted from Uranium Star’s airborne geophysical survey flown in 2007. The mineralised zone is interpreted to pinch and swell along its entire strike length of over 18 km, as well as up and down dip.

The initial trench results from the south end of the property indicate that the near surface mineralisation has widths that are far beyond the company’s initial expectations. Significant grades of vanadium mineralisation have been seen over widths exceeding 200 m, with a high-grade core having grades in excess of 1% V₂O₅.  The average width of vanadium mineralisation is in excess of 50 m.

Past experience indicates that the XRF units being used to report the trench results very adequately generate vanadium values that can be used with confidence. A comparison of the 2008 drill results between the XRF and commercial laboratory assays was very strong. All trench samples are being sent to the NATA accredited Genalysis Services Laboratory in Perth, Australia for verification of the XRF results.  A rigorous QAQC program is in place and being overseen by Taiga Consultants to ensure accuracy of analytical results. Uranium Star has recently completed 56 trenches, totaling 8,168 m on the primary vanadium trend that extends the entire 18 km length of the property. Highlights are as follows;

• 0.65% V₂O₅ over 218 m, including 1.30% V₂O₅ over 32 m for trench TR-09-002
• 0.62% V₂O₅ over 270 m, including 1.30% V₂O₅ over 45 m for trench TR-09-039
• 1.16% V₂O₅ over 30 m for TR-09-044, and 0.92% V₂O₅ over 58 m for TR-09-050

The 2008 drilling results indicated that vanadium grades at and near surface are enhanced over those from primary mineralization.  Highlights are as follows;

• 0.85% V₂O₅  oxide zone over 56.4 m, including 0.96% V₂O₅ over 42.6 m for Hole TH-08-24.
• 0.4% V₂O₅ over 44.2 m, including  0.77% V₂O₅ over 13.7 m for Hole TH-08-27
• 0.37% V₂O₅ over 42.7 m, including 0.44% V₂O₅ over 12.2 m for Hole TH-08-02 
• 0.% V₂O₅ over 36.6 m, including 0.56% V₂O₅ over 12.2 m for Hole TH-08-29
• 0.4% V₂O₅ over 79.3 m, including  0.61% V₂O₅ over 19.8 m for Hole TH-08-14
• 0.4% V₂O₅ oxide zone over 64.0 m, including 0.51% V₂O₅ over 13.4 m for Hole TH-08-13
• 0.41% V₂O₅ oxide zone over 21.3 m, including 0.51% V₂O₅ over 15.2 m for Hole TH-08-11 

An extensive drill program is planned for later in the year that will allow Uranium Star to calculate a compliant resource statement that can be used in an economic assessment of the property. The Company’s objective in the upcoming drill program is to define a minimum of 200 Mt of appreciable vanadium mineralisation.

Why is vanadium so special?

Vanadium is a strategic metal that is already irreplaceable for engineering in aerospace, aviation, automotive, shipping, and construction. Vanadium has a remarkable ability to make steel alloys both stronger and lighter, and when added to steel, it creates a product that is lightweight but extremely high in tensile strength and wear resistance. In fact, vanadium-titanium alloys have the best strength-to-weight ratio of any engineered material. These ultra high-strength and super-light steels are often called the plastics of the 21st century, and demand for them is strong and growing.

BHP Billiton projects that more steel will be consumed in the next 20 years than was consumed during the entire 20th century. High Strength – Low Alloy steel, made with vanadium, has outpaced crude steel production by 21.6% since 2006.

Around the world, economic stimulus packages are now funding a global boom in infrastructure projects such as airports, pipelines and bridges. CIBC World Markets estimates total global infrastructure spending over the next 20 years at $35 trillion – with many of those projects requiring vanadium.

“While vanadium is most often associated with steel, it is poised to play a pivotal role in helping renewable energy achieve success,” says Uranium Star. “Vanadium also makes highly powerful and efficient batteries – batteries that have the potential for large-scale, power grid usage.

“Solar, wind and geothermal power will not be fully effective without an efficient way to store it in a commercialised and scalable manner.  Vanadium has exceptional qualities in battery technology applications.  It has the ability to absorb and release huge amounts of electricity instantaneously, and will play a pivotal role in the emergence of battery power and energy storage.

“Vanadium may therefore hold the key to scaling renewable energy to national levels, helping reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. Beyond these large-scale uses, vanadium has also proven to be effective at combining with lithium-ion batteries to significantly improve their performance – so the next generation of hybrid car batteries may also feature vanadium.”

Bill Nielsen, Director is the Project Manager for the Green Giant vanadium project in Madagascar. Taiga Consultants is supervising Uranium Star’s exploration activities in Madagascar under the direction of Claude Aussant.