THE RARE METALS 277 



Origin of Ores. Small quantities of primary vanadium may 

 occur in the segregation of titaniferous magnetites. Carnotite 

 occurs as impregnation deposits in sandstones. It occurs also 

 in the pegmatite veins of Radium Hill, South Australia. Where 

 carnotite occurs on or near partially altered vegetable matter, 

 organic substances have acted as precipitants for vanadium. 

 Mottramite occurs as an impregnation deposit in England, 

 where it has attained some commercial significance. Roscoelite 

 is found sparingly in the gold veins of Boulder County, Colorado, 

 and in Granite Creek, California, several pounds of roscoelite 

 were wasted in the extraction of the included gold. 



Geographical Distribution. Workable deposits are chiefly 

 confined to the Cordilleran belt. Colorado and Utah are the 

 most promising; but vanadinite ores have been produced com- 

 mercially in Arizona and New Mexico. 



Geological Horizon. Small quantities of vanadium may be 

 found in the rocks of all ages; but the workable deposits of 

 western Colorado and eastern Utah are in Jurassic and Cretaceous 

 sandstones. 



Uses. Like titanium, vanadium finds its most important use 

 in the manufacture of steel. Even small quantities of the 

 metal impart a remarkable toughness to the steel. In the manu- 

 facture of steel it removes both oxygen and nitrogen, and forms 

 carbides, with beneficent effect upon the finished product. 

 Vanadium steel resists both shock and fatigue far better than 

 ordinary steel. It is therefore well fitted for saws, springs, and 

 mechanical tools in general. Vanadium is introduced into steel 

 either as an alloy with chromium, or with manganese, or both. 

 To these alloys nickel is sometimes added. Each metal present 

 tends to make the resulting steel both hard and tough. Vanadi- 

 um is also used in the manufacture of cast iron, brass and bronze. 



When 3 to 5 parts per 1,000 are added to steel, vanadium 

 communicates remarkable properties. It doubles the coefficient 

 of resistance to fracture under all circumstances (as shock, crush- 

 ing, elongation, etc), and at the same time imparts such extreme 

 hardness as to make it possible to reduce the armor of vessels in 

 thickness almost one-half. The reason that the effect of 0.5 or 

 0.3 per cent, of vanadium is so general and intense on steel lies in 

 the extreme avidity vanadium has for oxygen. The presence of 

 minute traces of the metal in a bath of molten steel would lead to 

 an immediate and absolute reduction of every trace of iron oxide. 



