Vanadium-bearing ores processing

For industrial purposes vanadium is not required in the elemental state. More than 90 per cent, of the world s production of vanadium is used in the manufacture of special steels, for which purpose an iron-vanadium alloy, known as ferrovanadium, containing from 80 to 40 per cent, of vanadium, is marketed. The method of manufacture of this alloy from vanadium-bearing ores varies considerably with the composition of the ore and the value of the by-products. The process is conveniently divided into two stages ... 

The lead-chamber process supplied the world s need for sulfuric acid for a century and a half. In the late nineteenth century, the contact process replaced the lead-chamber process. The contact process utilized sulfur dioxide, SOj, which was produced as a byproduct when sulfur-bearing ores were smelted. The contact process was named because the conversion of sulfur dioxide to sulfur trioxide, SO3, takes place on contact with a vanadium or platinum catalyst during the series of reactions ... 

There are two other aspects that should be mentioned here that may directly affect the choice of the milling process. First, the uranium ore often contains other metals that have commercial value, like vanadium or niobium, for example, and their recovery may influence the process selected for uranium recuperation. Second, uranium itself may be a by-product of other processes like gold extraction, niobium, and tantalum production or phosphoric acid manufacture. Thus, recovery of low levels of uranium from phosphates, columbite, or gold-bearing minerals may not be economical in itself, but extracting uranium as a by-product from the waste streams of these operations could be commercially sensible. 

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