Where Does Vanadium Come From?
Definition A grayish chemical element, vanadium was discovered in 1801 by Andrés Manuel del Río in Mexico. It is a transition metal that represented with a “V” on the period table of elements, and has the atomic number 23. The oxidation states of vanadium are +2, +3, +4 and +5. Occurrences In nature, vanadium is always bound to another chemical element or compound. Vanadium occurs naturally in many different mineral deposits, such as patronite, descloizite, magaritasite, lyonsite and carnotite. Vanadium also naturally occurs in many different fossil fuel deposits, such as oil shale, crude oil, tar and coal. Production Commercial mining of vanadium primarily occurs in Australia, South Africa, China and Russia; some minor vanadium production also occurs in the United Kingdom, the United States, Kazakhstan and Japan. Vanadium is typically produced as a byproduct of other materials, such as steel; because it is recovered as a part of other processes, recovery is cheaper than other methods
