Arunachal Pradesh is likely to become India’s prime producer of Vanadium. Vanadium is a high-value metal used in strengthening steel and titanium.
Exploration being carried out by the Geological Survey of India (GSI) has placed the eastern Arunachal Pradesh on the vanadium map of the country.
Reports say, geologists are confident of identifying a deposit soon.
Even though India is a significant consumer of Vanadium, it has not been a prime producer of the essential metal.
As per the GSI officials, the metal has been recovered as a by-product from a slag that was collected from the processing of vanadiferous magnetite ores.
India consumed 4% of about 84,000 metric tonnes of vanadium produced across the globe in 2017.
China, which produces 57% of the world’s vanadium, consumed 44% of the metal.
According to a geo-specialist, they have found promising concentrations of vanadium in the palaeo-proterozoic carbonaceous phyllite rocks in the Depo and Tamang areas in Papum Pare district of the Himalayan state.
Vanadium mineralisation in Arunachal Pradesh is geologically similar to the “stone coal” vanadium deposits of China hosted in carbonaceous shale, he said.
This high vanadium content is associated with graphite with a fixed carbon content of up to 16%.
Geologists have spotted two bands of about 7-metre thick carbonaceous phyllite for a length of more than 6 km in the Depo area, The Hindu reported.
This prompted the GSI to extend its search to other areas of the State.
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