IUM ORES

ECONOMIC FEATURES

Vanadium is used mainly in steel, to which it gives great toughness and
torsional strength. Vanadium steels are used in locomotive tires,
frames, and springs, in those parts of automobiles that must withstand
special bending strains, in transmission shafts, and in general in
forgings which must stand heavy wear and tear. Vanadium is also used in
high-speed tool steels, its use materially reducing the amount of
tungsten necessary. It is added in the form of ferrovanadium, carrying
35 to 40 per cent of vanadium. Another use of vanadium is in
chrome-vanadium steels for armor-plate and automobiles. Minor amounts
are used in making bronzes, in medicine, and in dyeing.

The low-grade ores of the United States range from 1 to 8 per cent of
vanadium oxide, the general mean being nearer the lower figure. The
high-grade ores of Peru contain from about 10 to as high as 50 per cent
of the oxide; the roasted ore as shipped averages about 35 to 40 per
cent.

Two-thirds of the world's supply of vanadium comes from Peru, where the
mines are under American control. The concentrates are all shipped to
the United States and some of the ferrovanadium is exported from this
country to Europe. The Germans during the war supplied their needs for
vanadium from the minette iron ores in the Briey district in France, and
presumably the French will in the future utilize this source. An
unrecorded but small quantity is obtained by the English from
lead-vanadate mines in South Africa. There are some fairly large
deposits of vanadium minerals in Asiatic Russia, which may ultimately
become an important source.

The United States supplies less than one-half of its normal needs of
vanadium, from southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah. The grade of
these deposits is low and the quantity in sight does not seem to promise
a long future. Through its commercial control of the Peruvian deposits,
the United States dominates the world's vanadium situation.

GEOLOGIC FEATURES

The Minasragra vanadium deposit of Peru contains patronite (vanadium
sulphide) associated with a peculiar nickel-bearing sulphide and a black
carbonaceous mineral called "quisqueite," in a lens-shaped body of
unknown depth, enclosed by red shales and porphyry dikes. The origin is
unknown. The patronite has altered at the surface to red and brown
hydrated vanadium oxides.

The deposits of Colorado and Utah are large lens-shaped bodies
containi