Vanadium

Content maintained by Alan Whitaker

• Vanadium
• Resources
• JORC Reserves
• World Ranking
• Exploration
• Production
• Industry Developments

Vanadium (V) is used in metal alloys with iron to produce high strength steel which has a range of uses. These include structural applications such as gas and oil pipelines, tool steel, the manufacture of axles and crankshafts for the motor vehicle industry and in jet engines for the aircraft industry as well as for reinforcing bars in building and construction.

Non-steel uses include welding and in alloys used in nuclear engineering and superconductors. Vanadium chemicals and catalysts are used in the manufacture of sulphuric acid, the desulphurisation of sour gas and oil and in the development of fuel cells and low charge time, light weight batteries.

Vanadium is sold as vanadium pentoxide (V₂O₅), or less commonly as vanadium trioxide (V₂O₃) and as an alloy of iron and vanadium, most commonly as FeV80 which has 80% contained vanadium, or as FeV50.

Primary production of vanadium from mining and processing of magnetite ores accounts for only 29% of annual world production of vanadium. The majority of world production of vanadium (56%) is recovered from slag produced as a by-product of steel making, while the remaining world production (15%) is recovered from wastes including fly ash and oil residues.

Vanadium prices have fluctuated during the past decade, with sharp rises and equally sharp declines over short periods. Historically, prices have ranged from US$1.30 a pound V₂O₅ to more than US$20 a pound. Average prices fell from US$14.75 a pound V₂O₅ in 2008 to US$4.00 a pound in 2009 in response to the impacts of the global financial crisis and the decreased demand for vanadium from the steel industry in many countries. During 2010, prices for V2O5 slowly increased to US$7.50 a pound by May but decreased again in the second half of the year to US$7.41 early in 2011.

Australia's Economic Demonstrated Resources (EDR) of vanadium decreased by 34% in 2010 to 1762 kilotonne (kt) as a result of a reassignment of resources for some deposits to the paramarginal category.

Historically, Australia's EDR have fluctuated because of the economic impacts of volatile prices and the nature of the vanadium market, which is supplied largely from secondary sources, including reprocessing of slags from iron smelting. These secondary sources are able to rapidly increase or decrease output in response to price trends.

About 67% of Accessible Economic Demonstrated Resources (AEDR) is made up of Joint Ore Reserve Committee (JORC) Code Reserve. The remaining 33% of AEDR represents resources assessed by Geoscience Australia from the Measured and Indicated categories of industry reported mineral resources, as defined under the JORC Code.

Based on the US Geological Survey Mineral Commodity Summary for 2010 the world's largest economic resources of vanadium are in China which has around 5100kt followed by the Russian Federation with 5000kt and South Africa with around 3500kt. It is not possible to determine definitively Australia's ranking, but Geoscience Australia data indicates that Australia has the world's fourth largest resources.

Data on exploration expenditure for vanadium are not available in published statistics. However, during 2010 exploration or resource drilling was undertaken at Lilyvale in Queensland (Qld) by Intermin Resources Ltd, at Hawkwood (Qld) by Eastern Iron Ltd), at Bigrlyi in the Northern Territory (NT) by Southern Cross Exploration NL, at Unaly Hill in Western Australia (WA) by Black Ridge Mining NL and at Windimurra (WA) by Atlantic Ltd.

There was no production of vanadium in Australia during 2010. Although there are a number of vanadium deposits in Australia, Windimurra, has been the only deposit mined in recent years. Most of the world's mine production of vanadium during 2010 was in China (38%), South Africa (33%) and Russia (26%).

During 2010, vanadium resource figures were updated by Intermin Resources Ltd for its Julia Creek project (Qld), TNG Ltd for its Mount Peake (NT), NiPlats Australia Ltd for the Speewah project (WA) and Yellow Rock Resources Ltd for its Gabanintha project (WA). In contrast, Atlas Iron announced marginally reduced resources for the Balla Balla deposit (WA) as a result a feasibility study and re-estimation of resources. Several companies undertook metallurgical studies on samples, including material from the Hawkwood deposit (Qld) operated by Eastern Iron Ltd), Mount Peake (NT) operated by TNG Ltd and the Speewah project (WA) operated by NiPlats Australia Ltd). Atlantic Ltd successfully acquired the Windimurra project and commenced planning reconstruction of the plant and mine for resumption of operations in 2011/12.