Top 4 Vanadium-producing Countries | INN
In 2025, the vanadium market is navigating a complex landscape shaped by its traditional role in steelmaking and its emerging importance in energy storage technologies.
Approximately 90 percent of vanadium consumption continues to be driven by the steel industry, where it is used to strengthen alloys. However, the growing adoption of vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) for grid-scale energy storage is creating new avenues for demand, particularly as countries pursue decarbonization goals and renewable energy integration.
On the supply side, vanadium sees relatively limited primary production from ore and instead relies on co-production from steel slag and uranium mining, with a portion also coming from recycling. Global production has remained relatively consistent in the 2020s at around 100,000 metric tons per year.
Four countries contribute to the vast majority of that output. Below is a brief overview of these top vanadium-producing countries based on data from the US Geological Survey’s 2025 Mineral Commodity Summary.
1. China
Mine production: 70,000 metric tons
China remains the world’s top vanadium-producing country by far, with output of 70,000 metric tons in 2024. Production has remained steady out of China in 2023 and 2024. The Asian nation far outpaces all other countries in terms of vanadium output, and leads the world in vanadium consumption as well due to its high steel production. The majority of its vanadium is produced from steel slag.
In terms of vanadium exports, China’s are “quite small,” according to Fastmarkets, as producers can turn a bigger profit in the domestic market.
2. Russia
Vanadium production: 21,000 metric tons
Second on the list is Russia, whose vanadium output totaled 21,000 metric tons in 2024, essentially on par with production in the previous two years. Russia’s vanadium reserves are the second largest in the world at 5,000 MT.
EVRAZ KGOK, part of EVRAZ, is a major mining company in Russia that produces vanadium. Little other information is available about vanadium mining in Russia, and the majority of the country’s vanadium production is a co-product of steel slag.
3. South Africa
Vanadium production: 8,000 metric tons
South Africa’s vanadium output declined last year, slipping to 8,000 metric tons in 2024, The country’s vanadium output had previously held above the 8,500 MT per year a level since 2019.
South Africa’s contributions to the vanadium market consist of primary production from Bushveld Minerals (LSE:BMN) and Glencore (LSE:GLEN,OTC Pink:GLCNF). Bushveld Minerals’ vanadium division includes the Vametco mine and processing facility, the Vanchem processing facility, and the future Mokopane vanadium mine and the Belco production plant. Glencore’s Rhovan open-cast mine and smelter complex mainly…
