An Omani push for vanadium: Oman's Sohar Port and Freezone has signed a land lease agreement with Sohar Noble Metals (FZC) to set up a USD 7 mn vanadium and niobium metal production facility in the freezone, according to a statement. The project — which will span an area of 5k square meters — will have its production supplied to superalloy industries in the US and European markets. It expects the facility’s production to lure further investments from companies that rely on the crucial metals, the statement notes.

Vanadium has been grabbing interest regionally: Canada’s Elcora Advanced Materials tapped mineral processing company Lab 4 for the design and testing of its planned vanadium pentoxide plant in Morocco earlier this year. It aims to use the extracted vanadium to produce vanadium pentoxide, an industrial chemical used as a catalyst in the production of redox flow batteries — a type of battery that is being studied and deployed globally for large-scale grid storage projects.

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Gulf carbon mapping project set to receive funding from the UK: A joint project between Bahrain, the UAE, and the UK for the deployment of high resolution carbon mapping sensors was amongst 32 projects selected to receive up to GBP 75k as part of the UK Space Agency’s International Bilateral Fund, according to a statement. The sensors will be used to monitor greenhouse gas emission management programmes in the Gulf region, the statement added. The agency’s bilateral fund holds GBP 20 mn worth of investments, with GBP 2.1 mn earmarked for the 32 projects.

OTHER STORIES WORTH KNOWING ABOUT THIS MORNING-

• Bahrain marches ahead with solar: Solar projects totalling 218.8 MW are being developed in Bahrain, which currently has a total renewables capacity of 51.9 MW. (Report,pdf)
• Big dip in emissions for Mubadala Energy: Abu Dhabi sovereign investor Mubadala’s subsidiary Mubadala Energy reported a 41% drop in Scope 1 greenhouse gas emission intensity between 2021 and 2022. (Wam)