OCR Text |
Show 31 vanadates present difficult metallurgical problems, Total production of vanadium from vanadate ore in the United States Is probably less than one per cent of the total production. The auantity of by-product vanadium from the production of phosphate fertilizer has not been made public, although indications are that the quantity is nominal. Colorado-Utah-New Mexico. The sedimentary deposits in western Colorado and adjoining parts of southeastern Utah and northeastern New Mexico have accounted for fully 99 per cent of the vanadium mined in the United States. These deposits occur in sandstone and have a number of other features in common. On the basis of certain differences and geographic distribution, however, they fall into three main groups or areas; one area of several square miles near Placerville, Colorado; a second area of a few square miles northeast of Rifle, Colorado; and a third area that covers many townships in Southwestern Colorado and adjoining parts of Utah and New Mexico. The area in Southwestern Colorado as used in this report refers specifically to the part of the third area that is in Colorado. Placerville Is in eastern San Miguel County and near the western margin of the important gold-silver-lead-zlnc mining district of hydrothermal origin in the San Juan Mountains. The vanadium mineralization is not related genetically to the gold-silver-lead-zino deposits, because |