Vanadium, a critical raw material for many industrial applications, has been found in sediment samples collected from Gulf of Khambhat, which opens into the Arabian Sea off Alang in Gujarat. What makes this find a significant one is that the war mineral, used to strengthen steel and make batteries, is scarce in India.
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Notably, only a few months ago, the Geological Survey of India (GSI) unearthed a significant find: 5.9 million tonnes of lithium reserves in Jammu and Kashmir. This discovery was celebrated by stakeholders in the automotive sector and ministers alike, who hailed it as a groundbreaking development. They touted these reserves as a substantial catalyst for India’s progress towards achieving net-zero carbon emissions and promoting electric mobility.
The Geological Survey of India (GSI), which conducted research on the sediments, first reported the potential new source of vanadium. “It is the first report of vanadium occurrence in the offshore sediments of India,” says B Gopakumar, a researcher from the Marine and Coastal Survey Division (MCSD) of GSI, Mangalore, in an article published in ‘Nature’ magazine.
Rarely found in its pure form naturally, vanadium is present in over 55 different minerals, which makes its production costly. At Gulf of Khambhat, it has been found in a mineral called titanomagnetite, which is formed when molten lava cools rapidly.
GSI scientists said the vanadiferous titanomagnetite deposits in the Gulf of Khambhat were possibly drained from the Deccan basalts mainly through the rivers of Narmada and Tapi. The scientists collected 69 samples from the sediments in the Gulf of Khambhat.
Vanadium is a critical raw material for strategic sectors such as defence and aerospace. For instance, vanadium-containing alloys of titanium and aluminium are used in jet engine components and high-speed airframes.
Besides these, the metal is also used for storing energy and in making critical electronic components. It is used to make alloys that are resistant to corrosion, wear and high temperatures. It is also used to make vanadium redox flow batteries, which are promising for large-scale energy storage.
Traces of the metal have so far been found in Arunachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Odisha and Maharashtra.
