Vanadium is found all over the world. There is not much vanadium in the earth’s crust. On average, there is one atom of vanadium in 20,000 atoms, more than copper, tin, zinc and nickel. Vanadium is found in seawater, in sea urchins and other Marine organisms, in magnetite, in a variety of bituminous minerals and coal ash, in meteorites falling to earth and in the spectral lines of the sun. Vanadium is a trace element widely distributed on the earth, its content accounts for about 0.02% of the crust composition, relatively easy to obtain.
98% of the world’s known vanadium reserves are produced in vanadium titanomagnetite. In addition to vanadium titanomagnetite, vanadium resources are partly found in phosphorite ore, uranium-bearing sandstone, siltstone, bauxite, carbonaceous crude oil, coal, oil shale and asphalt sand.
The world’s vanadium titanium magnetite reserves are large, and concentrated in a few countries and regions, including: the commonwealth of independent states, the United States, China, South Africa, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Canada, Australia, and concentrated in South Africa, North America and other regions. According to the United States bureau of mines statistics in 1988, the world’s vanadium reserves based on 160 million tons (in vanadium). According to the current amount of mining, the world’s proven vanadium resources can be mined for 150 years. In terms of reserves base, South Africa accounts for 46%, the commonwealth of independent states for 23.6%, the United States for 13.1%, China for 11.6%, and the total of other countries is less than 6%.
In South Africa, vanadium is usually produced in the layer of vanadium magnetite. The average grade of these deposits is 1.5%. It is estimated that South Africa’s vanadium reserves are about 12.5 million tons, the largest in the world.
Vanadium is an essential trace element in human body. The content of vanadium in human body is about 25mg, and the main form of vanadium is vo-3, namely metavandate, under the condition of pH4~8. The other is a +5 oxidation form of VO4-3 orthovanadate. Due to similar biological effects, vanadate (Va) generally refers to these two +5 oxidation ions. Vo-3 enters the cell through ion transport system or freely, and is reduced to VO2+ (+4 oxidation state) by reduced glutathione, namely vanadyl. Since phosphoric acid and Mg2+ ions widely exist in cells, vo-3 and phosphoric acid are similar in structure and VO2+ and Mg2+ are of similar size (ionic radius is 160pm and 165pm respectively), so they may interfere with the biochemical reaction process of cells by competing with phosphoric acid and Mg2+ to bind ligands. For example, inhibition of ATP hydrolase, ribozyme phosphofructose kinase, phosphoglyceraldehyde kinase, 6-phosphodextropase, phosphotyrosine protein kinase. Therefore, vanadium has a wide range of biological effects after entering cells. Vanadium compounds have the advantages of relatively easy synthesis and low price, so the study on the mechanism of vanadium compounds is conducive to the development and utilization of vanadium.
Mineral potassium vanadate uranium ore, brown lead ore and green sulfur vanadium ore, stone coal mine. China is a country rich in vanadium resources, with vanadium reserves of 20.55 million tons (V2O5) mainly occurring in vanadium titanium magnetite, and concentrated in panzhihua city, sichuan province, and chengde city, hebei province. Panzhihua’s vanadium reserves are 12.95 million tons, accounting for 63 percent of China’s vanadium reserves.
