A brief treatment of vanadium follows. For information on the mining, recovery, and applications of vanadium, see Industries, Extraction and Processing . Found combined in various minerals, coal, and petroleum, vanadium is the 22nd most abundant element in the Earth's crust.
Some commercial sources are the minerals carnotite, vanadinite, and roscoelite.
Other commercial sources are vanadium-bearing magnetite and flue dust from smokestacks and boilers of ships burning certain Venezuelan and Mexican oils. The pentoxide is then reduced to ferrovanadium or vanadium powder. Vanadium metal, sheet, strip, foil, bar, wire, and tubing have found use in high-temperature service, in the chemical industry, and in bonding other metals. Thus, vanadium steel is especially strong and hard, with improved resistance to shock. Nine artificial radioactive isotopes have been produced.