A.D. Hammond reports that The drop in iron ore prices has claimed an unwitting casualty in vanadium. Vanadium is dominantly produced as a coproduct of steel production. The recent shutdown at EVRA Mapochs steel-vanadium operations in South Africa has cut off 10 percent of the world vanadium output. In February 2015, Australia Atlantic Ltd. suspended operations at its Windimurra iron-vanadium complex after a fire caused severe damage at the plant. Since then, challenging market conditions has resulted in the permanent closure of this operation. This decoupling of vanadium production from integrated iron ore producers presents an opportunity for vanadium exploration companies to target single-product deposits. This trend is manifested in the increasing number of pure-play vanadium ventures around the world.
The mine production of vanadium is dominated by three countries, China, South Africa and Russia, which collectively produce 96 percent of the world vanadium. While the use of vanadium as an alloy in the steel industry remains the largest application for this metal, growth in demand is expected to come from the renewable energy industry in the form of batteries for energy storage. This article summarizes the current state of vanadium exploration, briefly describes the vanadium market and lists sources of future demand for the metal.
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