85 Years of Vanadium Experience - Strategic Minerals Corporation

Stratcor - Vanadium, Tungsten and Master Alloys offering exceptional value - Strategic Minerals Corporation

STRATEGIC MINERALS CORPORATION . . .
OVER 85 YEARS OF VANADIUM EXPERIENCE

Although Strategic Minerals was formed in 1986, its roots go back to 1925 when a mill was built in Rifle, Colorado to extract vanadium from vanadium-uranium ores widely found in the area. The mill was built by Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation, a diversified industrial company that processed a wide range of materials, including most major alloying metals used in steel. One of those alloying metals was vanadium, which strengthens and hardens steel.

Under Union Carbide, the vanadium business expanded domestically and internationally. The company opened several mines and built additional refining facilities in the Utah-Colorado area that extracted vanadium from nearby vanadium-uranium ores. The company also opened a mine and built a mill in Hot Springs, Arkansas to extract vanadium from vanadium-only ores next to the plant. Vanadium alloys and chemicals were then produced in Niagara Falls, N.Y.

Union Carbide also opened a mine and built two mills in minerals-rich South Africa where extensive deposits of vanadium were found. These facilities were able to produce downstream products such as ferrovanadium and a vanadium-nitrogen alloy called Nitrovan® vanadium. These products are widely used to strengthen steel.

In 1986, several managers of Union Carbide's vanadium and tungsten business purchased that business in a leveraged buy-out, forming a new company called Strategic Minerals Corporation. At that time, the new company's vanadium business consisted of a mine and mill in Hot Springs, a ferrovanadium facility in Niagara Falls, and a mine and processing facilities in Brits, South Africa.

miners

Union Carbide miners prepare to blast ores containing vanadium in an underground mine in Western Colorado, U.S.A.

Strategic Minerals also produced tungsten products in California until 1995, when those assets were sold to Avocet Ventures, Inc. The company continues to market tungsten-metal powder today.

HotSprings plant

Strategic Minerals' Hot Springs, Arkansas plant produces vanadium pentoxide (V₂O₅) and other vanadium products used by the steel, titanium, and chemical industries. In 1998, Nissho Iwai Corporation — a major Japanese metals-trading company now known as Sojitz Corporation — purchased 25% of Strategic Minerals Corporation as an investment. Then, in 2006, Evraz Group S.A., a major mining and metals company headquartered in Russia, purchased about 73% of the company, making Strategic Minerals part of the Evraz Group. The Russian-based company mined vanadium-bearing iron ore for use in its steelmaking operations, producing a vanadium-bearing slag from which vanadium could be extracted. Evraz's purchase of a controlling interest in Strategic Minerals Corporation gave it the production and marketing expertise needed to expand into downstream vanadium products.

Today, Strategic Minerals' production facilities in the United States have been consolidated at Hot Springs, Arkansas where the company converts vanadium ashes, residues, and other raw materials into vanadium products used by the steel, titanium, and chemical industries. As a result, Strategic Minerals is a major supplier of high-purity vanadium pentoxide (V2O5), ferrovanadium, vanadium-aluminum, and vanadium halides.

[ HOME ] [ SITE MAP ] [ CONTACT US ] [ TOP ]