Vanadium is a metallic element with the atomic number 23 and the symbol V. On the periodic table of elements, it is found in Group 5, and in Period 4 between titanium and chromium. It is referred to as a “transition metal.”
Vanadium is a soft, ductile element. Described as silvery-white in color, or, when it is a powder, as light-gray with a silvery sheen.
Although vanadium’s discovery is often credited to Swedish chemist Nils Gabriel Sefström, but in fact the discoverer was Spanish professor of mineralogy Andrés Del Rio, who in 1801 found the element in Mexico and named it erythronium. Persuaded that it was nothing new, Del Rio dropped his claim, and Sefstrom receives credit. It was German chemist Friedrich Wöhler who proved in 1831 that the discoveries were identical.
Ferro-Alloy Resources Ltd (LON:FAR) is developing the giant Balasausqandiq vanadium deposit in Kyzylordinskaya oblast of southern Kazakhstan. The ore at this deposit is unlike that of nearly all other primary vanadium deposits and is capable of being treated by a much lower cost process.
