Vanadium mine production

Ore Processing. Vanadium is recovered domestically as a principal mine product, as a coproduct or by-product from uranium—vanadium ores, and from ferrophosphoms as a by-product in the production of elemental phosphoms. In Canada, it is recovered from cmde-oil residues and in the Repubhc of South Africa as a by-product of titaniferous magnetite. Whatever the source, however, the first stage in ore processing is the production of an oxide concentrate. 

The production of vanadium in mines is reported in Table 21.1. Table 21.1 Mine production of vanadium in 2002 [21.2]... 

Country Mine production Tonnes, vanadium content Percentage of total... 

Most U.S. production (20 x 10 lbs ia 1996) of primary vanadium compounds has been as by-products or coproducts of uranium and of ferrophosphoms derived from smelting Idaho phosphates. Most of this processiag was from leaching acids, residues, and spent catalysts. The only domestic commercially mined ore, for its sole production of vanadium, is Arkansas brookite. It has contributed significantly to domestic supply siace ca 1969, however, it has not been mined siace 1992 (25). 

Humans have been exposed more and more to metallic contaminants in the environment, mostly from the products of industry. There are three main sources of metals in the environment. The most obvious are the processes of extraction and purification mining, smelting, and refining. Another is the release of metals from fossil fuels (e.g., coal, oil), when these are burned. Cadmium, lead, mercury, nickel, vanadium, chromium, and copper are all present in these fuels, and considerable amounts enter the air or are deposited in ash. The third and most diverse source is the production and use of industrial products containing metals, which is increasing as new applications are found. The modem chemical industry, for example, uses many metals or metal compounds as catalysts metal compounds are used as stabilizers in the production of many plastics, and metals are added to lubricants, which then find their way into the environment.21... 

Uranium mines are primarily the open pit type, but there is significant production from deep mines as well as from solution mining. Sometimes uranium is produced as a byproduct of mining operations for vanadium, phosphate, and gold. 

Currently the bulk of the world s vanadium is recovered as a by-product from deposits that are relatively low in vanadium resources in deposits of this kind are large. Deposits that can be mined profitably for vanadium alone must contain at least 1% V2O5, but not many deposits of this kind are known. 

Domestic supplies of vanadium are obtained from a deposit in Arkansas that is mined for vanadium alone from some deposits in the western states that yield coproduct uranium and vanadium and from slags derived from making elemental phosphorus from phosphate rock mined in Idaho. The vanadium-production potential of these deposits does not appear to be adequate to satisfy long-range domestic requirements. 

Other sources of vanadium are the vanadium-bearing phosphate ores of Idaho, by-product slags of lead mining operations in South West Africa, and bauxite operations in France. Significant quantities of vanadium are also available in boiler scale and other residues resulting from the combustion of vanadiumbearing fuels for power generation. 

Two of the most well-known applications of the sodium carbonate leaching of ores are the extraction of uranium from pitchblende in Canada and extraction of both uranium and vanadium from camotite, which is mined in numerous localities of the Colorado Plateau area of the United States. The latter deposits were originally worked for their vanadium content but since the 1939-45 war the emphasis has been on uranium, with vanadium a subsidiary product. 

The relative abundance of zinc in the Earth s crust is about 75 mg/kg (i.e., ppm wt.), less than vanadium, nickel, and chromium. Major zinc minerals are the sulfide sphalerite or blende [ZnS, cubic], smithsonite [ZnCOj, trigonal], and hemimorphite or calamine [Zn SijO/OHjj.HjO, monoclinic] and franklinite [ZnFe O, cubic]. Of these mainly the sphalerite is used as zinc ore. Moreover, in ore deposits, sphalerite is often associated with galena and pyrite, and because it contains nonnegligible amounts of impurities such as Cd, In, and Ge, sphalerite is the principal source of these metals as byproducts. In 2002, the world zinc concentrate production totaled ca. 8.728 x 10 tonnes of contained zinc. With roughly 233 mines operating worldwide, the Asia-Pacific region, with 108 mines and 3.794 X 10 tonnes per annum, and the Americas, with 82 mines and 3.803 x 10 tonnes annualy,... 

Vanadium Vmadiiun ore mining, by-product found in flues fi om burning oil in furnaces, acid phmt cat[Pg.311]

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