Vanadium is widely dispersed in the earth's crust occurring in many types of deposits. Most vanadium is currently obtained as a by-product or co-product from titanomagnetites, petroleum, uranium ores, and phosphate rock. Table 1 shows the abundance of vanadium in the earth's crust relative to some familiar elements.

Commercial production of vanadium was begun in the 1960s when it was required for evaluation as a structural material for breeder reactors. ATI Wah Chang and several other companies produced small quantities for this purpose. In 1979, ATI Wah Chang again began to produce vanadium in 400-700 lb. ingots. Recent demand has justified scale-up to produce 16 in. (40.6 cm) diameter ingots weighing up to 4500 lbs. This increased demand for vanadium has been due, in part, to its many attractive properties. These unique properties include:

• relatively low density (6.1 gms/cc)

• low neutron capture cross section

• relatively high strength at elevated temperature

• good fabricability

• low rate of neutron embrittlement

• relative abundance

• corrosion resistance

• superconductivity

• low-temperature ductility