Vanadium is a metal not often encountered in its pure form. Most people have certainly come into contact with it, though. Element number 23 is widely used as an additive in various steel alloys to which it adds a great deal of strength.

For now, even I don’t have any of the pure metal. Instead, I have some vanadinite crystals.

Vanadinite (a vanadate of lead) in the form of crystals on a sandstone matrix.

This vanadinite (Pb₅(VO₄)₃Cl) was mined in Morocco. Vanadinite is one of vanadium’s main ores, and is also important to lead production.