Largo qualifies vanadium product for aerospace industry

VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Strategic minerals producer Largo Resources has qualified the vanadium pentoxide product produced at its flagship Maracás Menchen mine, in Bahia, Brazil, for use by a major North American producer of master alloys for the aerospace industry.

High-purity vanadium pentoxide is used in the production of vanadium master alloys used by the global titanium alloy industry. Vanadium-based master alloys are critical, nonreplaceable materials used in the production of various titanium alloys for aerospace, industrial and other applications.

Further qualification trials are under way at master alloy producers in Europe and Russia, the company announced this week.

"Now that the Maracás Menchen mine has demonstrated stable and consistent operations, it is poised to benefit greatly from selling its vanadium products into higher-margin sectors, as well as from general increases in vanadium prices, which we anticipate will strengthen further during 2017," president and CEO Mark Smith said in a statement.

The qualification of Largo's vanadium pentoxide for these applications represents an important broadening of the supply base for high-purity vanadium pentoxide to the global titanium master alloy industry.

Over the past two years, rationalisations within the vanadium industry during a period of historically low prices have resulted in a significant decrease in the availability of high-purity vanadium pentoxide for the titanium, chemicals and energy storage (battery) markets. 

For Largo, the qualification is an important step in ensuring that its product becomes the product of choice in value-added specialty applications for vanadium pentoxide including applications in the titanium industry, the chemicals and catalyst industries, and the developing energy storage markets.