Vanadium Corporation of America - Delaware 1947

Beautifully engraved certificate from the Vanadium Corporation of America issued in 1947. This historic document was printed by Security Bank Note Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of an allegorical woman sitting between two men. This item has the signatures of the Company's Officers and is over 86 years old.






Certificate Vignette

Vanadium period, 1925-1945

1925. During the period up to 1936, operations in the carnotite regions of the Colorado Plateau were at a low ebb. Most of the ore produced was treated for its vanadium content, and small mills were built at Naturita and Slick Rock, Colorado, and in the Dry Valley and Henry Mountains areas of Utah. Some high-grade ore was sold to chemical companies for the extraction of uranium, which still had limited uses in the ceramic and chemical industries.

1936. Interest in the region started to increase again by 1936, when the US Vanadium Corporation built a mill at Uravan and resumed mining operations in the vicinity. During the next few years, prospecting and mining increased in intensity and expanded geographically as the demand for vanadium increased. Ore was produced over an area extending from Meeker, Colorado, on the northeast, southward to Durango, Colorado; westward through the northern part of the Navajo Reservation; and northward through the Henry Mountains and the San Rafael Swell in Utah.

During the late 1930s and early 1940s the mill at Naturita, Colorado, was rehabilitated, and new mills were built at Rifle, Loma, Gateway, Durango, and Disappointment Valley, Colorado, and at Blanding and Monticello, Utah. The mills at Durango and Monticello were financed by the government; the others by various private corporations. These enterprises experienced various degrees of success and failure, and at least half of the mills have been dismantled.

1942. During this period, geological activity was also stepped up. In 1942 several parties were sent into the area by the US Geological Survey to study the deposits and evaluate their vanadium potential, because it was apparent that foreign supplies would no longer be available. The tenor of the ore was estimated to be 1.5 per cent V2O5 and 0.25 per cent U3O8

Also in 1942, in order to stimulate vanadium production even more, the Metals Reserve Company began an ore-purchasing programme and increased the base price paid for vanadium ore. This had the effect of stimulating prospecting and mining and many new deposits were opened up. During 1943 and 1944, a co-operative drilling programme under the joint supervision of the Geological Survey and the Bureau of Mines was carried out to define reserves and aid miners in planning development. Ore was mined during this time almost entirely for its vanadium content; the uranium was discharged with the tailings. At this time several federal agencies co-operated in the building of roads into the various mining areas.

1944. The Metals Reserve buying programme was terminated early in 1944, and there was another slump in mining and milling activities. Although the Manhattan Project was now under way and uranium had suddenly become the keynote of a new age, there was a period of several years in which many of the mines and mills were inactive.

At the end of 1943, eight vanadium mills were in operation with a combined capacity of 795 tons per day, of which two were in Utah: one at Cottonwood, Utah, operated by Blanding Mines Company, had a capacity of 20 tons per day; the other at Monticello, Utah, with a capacity of 100 tons per day, was operated by the Vanadium Corporation of America, agent for the Metals Reserve Company. After the 1944 slump, the Blanding mill ceased operations for six years; and for three years, until 1947, the Monticello facility was mainly used for concentrating uranium contained in tailings.

History from World Nuclear Association.