• Arunachal Pradesh, considered a sleeping hydropower giant, is likely to become India’s prime producer of vanadium, 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 Himalayan State on the vanadium map of the country
• India is a significant consumer of vanadium, but is not a primary producer of the strategic metal.
• It is recovered as a by-product from the slag collected from the processing of vanadiferous magnetite ores (iron ore)

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• According to data provided by the GSI, India consumed 4% of about 84,000 tonnes of vanadium produced across the globe in 2017. China, which produces 57% of the world’s vanadium, consumed 44% of the metal.
• Vanadium mineralisation in Arunachal Pradesh is geologically similar to the “stone coal” vanadium deposits of China hosted in carbonaceous shale.
• This high vanadium content is associated with graphite, with a fixed carbon content of up to 16%.
• The expected grade of vanadium mineralisation in Arunachal Pradesh is comparable to the important                        vanadium deposits of the world.
• The largest deposits are in China, followed by Russia and South Africa,” the specialist said.