U.S.Geological Survey (USGS): Vanadium

Statistics and Information: Vanadium, when present in small amounts in certain ferrous alloys, can significantly improve their properties.Manufacturers of automobiles and machinery recognized the toughness and fatigue resistance of vanadium alloys as far back as the early 1900's, incorporating the alloys in axles, crankshafts, gears, and other critical components. Vanadium has been used together with aluminum to give the required strength in titanium alloys used in jet engines and high-speed airframes.

Vanadium
(Data in thousand metric tons of vanadium content unless otherwise noted)

U.S. Domestic Production and Use: Seven U.S. firms that comprise the majority of the U.S.domestic vanadium industry produced ferrovanadium, vanadium pentoxide, vanadium metal, and vanadium-bearing chemicals or specialty alloys by processing materials such as petroleum residues, spent catalysts, utility ash, and vanadium-bearing pig iron slag. Metallurgical use, primarily as an alloying agent for iron and steel, accounted for about 92% of the U.S. domestic vanadium consumption in 2008. Of the other uses for vanadium, the major nonmetallurgical use was in catalysts for the production of maleic anhydride and sulfuric acid.

U.S. Recycling: Some tool steel scrap was recycled primarily for its vanadium content, and vanadium was recycled from spent chemical process catalysts, but these two sources together accounted for only a very small percentage of total vanadium consumed. The vanadium content of other recycled steels was lost to slag during processing and was not recovered.

U.S. Import Sources (2004-2007): Ferrovanadium: Czech Republic, 76%; Swaziland, 7%; Canada, 6%; Republic of Korea, 6%; and other, 5%. Vanadium pentoxide: South Africa, 59%; China, 20%; Russia, 18%; and other, 3%.and other, 4%.

U.S. Tariff: Ash, residues, slag, and waste and scrap enter duty-free.

U.S. Depletion Allowance: 22% (Domestic), 14% (Foreign).

Events, Trends, and Issues: Preliminary data indicate that U.S. vanadium consumption in 2008 increased about 24% from that of the previous year; however, that increase is partially attributable to expanded reporting by large consumers in 2008. Among the major uses for vanadium, production of carbon, full-alloy, and high-strength, low-alloy steels accounted for 16%, 40%, and 30% of domestic consumption, respectively. In 2008, U.S. steel production was expected to be about the same as that of 2007.

Vanadium pentoxide prices ranged from $7.30 to $18.40 per pound of V2O5 and averaged $14.75 for the year, about 100% higher than that of 2007. Ferrovanadium prices ranged from $18.00 to $46.00 per pound of ferrovanadium and averaged an estimated $35.18 for the year, about 80% higher than that of 2007. The sharp rise in prices in 2008 occurred in the first quarter of the year when power shortages in South Africa and bad weather in China sharply reduced vanadium production. Supply disruption in a tight market, coupled with stable demand in the steel and aerospace industries, kept prices high for most of 2008.

World Mine Production, Reserves, and Reserve Base:

World Resources: World resources of vanadium exceed 63 million tons. Vanadium occurs in deposits of titaniferous magnetite, phosphate rock, and uraniferous sandstone and siltstone, in which it constitutes less than 2% of the host rock. Significant amounts are also present in bauxite and carboniferous materials, such as crude oil, coal, oil shale, and tar sands. Because vanadium is usually recovered as a byproduct or coproduct, demonstrated world resources of the element are not fully indicative of available supplies. While U.S.domestic resources and secondary recovery are adequate to supply a large portion of U.S. domestic needs, a substantial part of U.S. demand is currently met by foreign material because it is currently uneconomic to mine vanadium in the United States.

Substitutes: Steels containing various combinations of other alloying elements can be substituted for steels containing vanadium. Certain metals, such as niobium (columbium), manganese, molybdenum, titanium, and tungsten, are to some degree interchangeable with vanadium as alloying elements in steel. Platinum and nickel can replace vanadium compounds as catalysts in some chemical processes. There is currently no acceptable substitute for vanadium in aerospace titanium alloys.

(e)Estimated. NA Not available. — Zero.

U.S. Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries, January 2009