686 



UNITED STATES MINERAL RESOURCES 



minette-type iron ores of northern France, Western 

 Germany, and central England are large (Marelle, 

 1970), and probably each area contains a moderate 

 to large resource of vanadium. Three similar de- 

 posits in the U.S.S.R. — Ayatskoe (0.1 percent V2O5) , 

 Lisakovskoe (0.1 percent V2O5), and Kerch (0.05 

 percent V2O5) (Sokolov, 1970; Bardin, 1957) — each 

 contain large iron-ore reserves (Sokolov, 1970) and 

 moderate to large vanadium resources. Although va- 

 nadium probably is not being recovered from these 

 ores, Slotvinskii-Sidak and Liakishev (1970, p. 202) 

 stated : "Large vanadium reserves are concentrated 

 in the iron ores of Lisakovskoe, Kerchinskoe, Ayat- 

 skoe, and other deposits. Thus, in projected amount 

 of recovery of ores of the Lisakovskoe deposit, some 

 tens of thousands of tons of vanadium pentoxide 

 will be recovered in the iron concentrate (with 48- 

 50 percent Fe and 0.15-0.25 percent V.OJ." 



Magnetite and ilmenite sands commonly contain 

 0.1-0.5 percent VaO,; those rich in magnetite, es- 

 pecially those derived from titaniferous magnetite 

 deposits, are the ones generally richer in vanadium. 

 Some of these sand deposits occur along streams, but 

 most of them are on beaches. They occur in many 

 parts of the world, and some of them contain large 

 reserves of the black minerals and small to moderate 

 resources of vanadium. Japan is recovering some 

 vanadium from waste sulfuric acid derived from pro- 

 ducing titanium dioxide from ilmenite sands (De- 

 Huff, 1971). During World War II Japan recovered 

 vanadium and titanium from magnetite-rich beach 

 sand utilized principally as a source of iron. Perhaps 

 the sand deposits that offer the greatest potential for 

 vanadium production are those in New Zealand that 

 are now being exploited for iron (Ridley, 1968). 

 These deposits contain several hundred million tons 

 of sand, the concentrates of which contain 53-60 per- 

 cent Fe, 8-10 percent TiO,, and 0.3-0.5 percent V2O5 

 (Fyfe, 1952). 



Potential resources of vanadium in undiscovered 

 deposits in sandstone in the Colorado Plateau region, 

 United States, are probably small ; likely they do not 

 much exceed known reserves (table 147). Similar 

 deposits of vanadium with uranium in sandstone are 

 known in other parts of the United States and in 

 some foreign countries, notably the U.S.S.R., Gabon, 

 Argentina, and Australia, but generally these de- 

 posits have a lower vanadium content than the va- 

 nadium-rich deposits of the Colorado Plateau, and 

 therefore they do not seem to offer a significant va- 

 nadium potential. 



Occurrences of vanadate minerals are widespread, 

 especially in arid parts of the world, but accumula- 



tions of these minerals in amounts necessary for 

 mining are few; resources are judged to be negligi- 

 ble compared to other geologic types of vanadium 

 deposits. 



Many crude oils contain little or no vanadium, but 

 some, especially the asphalt-base oils, contain up to 

 several hundred parts per million V (Whisman and 

 Cotton, 1971). Although it would hardly be conven- 

 tional to classify an oil pool as a vanadium deposit, 

 industrial and natural residues of petroleum are, 

 nevertheless, commercial sources of vanadium and 

 they might become more significant sources in the 

 future. Vanadium is recovered from the ash and soot 

 of oil-burning furnaces and from refinery residues; 

 pollution-control practices may enhance the chance 

 of recovery from these sources in the future. The 

 recovery of vanadium from the residue of refining 

 Athabaska tar sand. Alberta, Canada, has been pro- 

 posed (Oil and Gas Journal, 1967) ; although these 

 sands contain only about 240 ppm V, the quantity of 

 material being processed could yield annually about 

 a quarter of the current North American vanadium 

 requirements. Similar deposits, if exploited for 

 petroleum products, could also be sources of vanadi- 

 um. The vanadium-bearing asphaltite deposit at 

 Mina Ragra, Peru, was the richest vanadium deposit 

 known, and it had yielded about one-fourth of the 

 world's total vanadium output by the time it was 

 mined out in 1955. No other sizable asphaltite deposit 

 of comparable grade is known, but many deposits 

 containing about 1 percent V2O5 have been reported, 

 especially in Peru (Larson and Welker, 1947) and 

 Argentina (Wright, 1940) . 



Certain carbonaceous shales, oil shales, phos- 

 phatic shales, and graphitic schists contain 0.2 to 

 nearly 1 percent V2O5; higher grade samples are 

 also reported. Some of the vanadium-bearing shale 

 deposits are tens of feet thick and cover broad areas 

 — obviously these deposits contain enormous ton- 

 nages of rock and represent large resources of va- 

 nadium. References to many carbonaceous shale 

 deposits are given by Tourtelot (1970) and by 

 Fischer and Ohl (1970). Notable examples of these 

 shales occur in Idaho and adjoining States (Fischer, 

 1961), in Kazakhstan, U.S.S.R. (Ankinovich, 1961), 

 in the high Andes of Peru (Larson and Welker, 

 1947), and in Queensland, Australia (Taylor, 1971). 



PROSPECTING TECHNIQUES 



The basic tools for prospecting for vanadium are 

 a knowledge of the geologic types of deposits in 

 which vanadium is apt to occur and a knowledge of 

 the geologic habits and mineral associations of such 

 deposits. The vanadium ore minerals in the vana- 



