OCR Text |
Show 22 The United States was fortunate in the discovery and early development of vanadium deposits in Colorado and the almost simultaneous development, by an American company, of the rich Peruvian ores, all of which were imported to the United States. Europe was less fortunate in that it had to rely for its source of vanadium on certain low-grade deposits or scattered erratic concentrations of vanadates or imports of less desirable complex vanadium concentrates from Southwest Africa and Northern Rhodesia. Under these circumstances, brought about by the natural distribution of vanadium deposits, the United States became the leading producer and consumer of vanadium. In recent years production has been reported in Russia, Germany, Morocco and Spain, but the quantities produced, although believed small, have not been made public. During World War II Germany obtained its vanadium requirements from "mimette" or oolitic iron ores from France, Belgium and Luxemburg, which contain a few tenths of one per cent of the metal. Japan is reported to have produced some vanadium from vanadium-bearing magnetite beach sands. These and other low-grade vanadium deposits throughout the world can produce considerable amounts of the metal, but the cost would be well above the current market price. |