VANADIUM The tremendous advances made within the last few years in the transportation industry, be it railroad, automobile or aeroplane, have very markedly brought forth the importance of the metal vanadium. It is always used in the metallurgical industry as an alloy. It is added to metals in very small quantities, yet produces in the finished metal very marked changes in physical properties. The present day mass production in the automotive industry or the developments in the aeroplane motor would not have been possible had it not been for the development of vanadium metal lurgy. Vanadium has also played an important part in arma ments.
Vanadium is one of the most widely distributed elements in the earth's crust, being present in almost all igneous rocks. However, occurrences of the metal in concentrated mineral deposits are scarce. The chief sources of supply are in Peru, South West Africa, United States, and Northern Rhodesia; these have con tributed to recent output in the proportions of 40%, and 15%, respectively. Small amounts have also been produced in Mexico, and there are other minor occurrences associated with the iron ores of Sweden, Norway, Luxembourg, France, Germany, Russia, and Japan, but as yet these have little commercial signifi cance. The mineral found in the most important deposit in Peru is patronite, a vanadium sulphide. In Colorado and Utah the occurring minerals are roscoelite, a vanadium silicate, and carno tite, a radium-bearing uranium vanadate. The ores of Mexico and Africa are descloizite and mottramite, complex vanadates of lead, zinc and copper.
The already known resources of vanadium minerals in the world fully assure an adequate supply for probably another generation. At the same time considerable effort is directed towards finding new deposits or further exploiting the known ones. The consump tion of vanadium is constantly increasing as new uses are devel oped, and in 1938 the total known world output was 3,15o metric tons of metal content in ore. The U.S. is the only important consumer with an appreciable domestic supply. Vanadium is an essential constituent of high-speed tool steel, the demand for which has increased tremendously with the expansion of mechanical production. It is also used in heat-resisting and non-corrosive steels. Some recent developments in the chemical industry will tend to make large demands on vanadium resources. Vanadium is beginning to be used in the textile, varnish, linoleum and rubber industries, and a particularly important application seems to be the use of its oxide as a catalyzer in the manufacture of sulphuric acid replacing platinum. Vanadium may also be applied in the agricultural and pharmaceutical industries. Marked strides have been made in the metallurgical treatment of vanadium minerals so that materials previously considered low grade or useless have been made available to the industry, thus augmenting the sources of raw materials and adding to vanadium reserves. (B. D. ; X.)