Vanadium is a silvery-white, soft, ductile, metallic element with the atomic symbol V and the atomic number 23. Discovered in 1801, but mistaken for chromium, vanadium was rediscovered in 1830, by Swedish chemist Nils Sefstrom, who named the element in honor of the Scandinavian goddess Vanadis.

Never found in the pure state, vanadium is found in about 65 different minerals such as carnotite, roscoelite, vanadinite, and patronite, as well as in phosphate rock, certain iron ores, some crude oils, and meteorites. Vanadium is one of the hardest of all metals. It melts at about 1890 degrees Celsius and boils at about 3380 degrees Celsius.

Vanadium has good structural strength and is used as an alloying agent with iron, steel, and titanium. It is used in aerospace applications, transmission gears, photography, as a reducing agent, and as a drying agent in various paints.

Prices – The price of vanadium in 2001 fell to the range of .60-4.50 per pound from .85-6.60 in 2000, and hit the lowest level in 5 years.

Supply – Nearly all (99.7%) vanadium is produced from ores, concentrates, and slag, with the remainder coming from petroleum residues, ash, and spent catalysts. World production of vanadium in 2002 rose +4.9% to a record high of 60,200 metric tons from 57,400 metric tons in 2001.

The world’s largest producer of vanadium is China with 33,000 metric tons of production in 2002, representing 55% of world production. The two other major producers are South Africa with 30% of world production, followed by Russia with 13% of world production. Production in Russia and South Africa has been relatively stable in recent years, while China’s production has grown very rapidly. China’s production level of 33,000 metric tons in 2002 was more than double that in 1998 and more than 7 times the amount produced in 1991. Japan is the only significant producer of vanadium from petroleum residues, ash, and spent catalysts with 245 metric tons of production in each of the last 8 years.

Trade – The US exports very little vanadium. US imports of vanadium were mainly in the form of ore, slag and residues with 3,330 metric tons of imports in 2002, up 12% from 2,980 metric tons in 2001. Other key import categories of vanadium were ferro-vanadium (2,520 metric tons), vanadium pent-oxide, anhydride (406 metric tons), and oxides and hydroxides (42 metric tons).