[Ferro-Alloys.com]  US Vanadium awarded gov’t offtake contract for National Defense Stockpile

TechMet’s current portfolio includes US Vanadium, based in Arkansas. (Image courtesy of TechMet.)

US Vanadium LLC, a subsidiary of TechMet USA, said Monday it has been awarded the largest contract in the company’s history by the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) Strategic Materials team, manager of the National Defense Stockpile (NDS), to supply domestically produced high-purity vanadium pentoxide flake over the next three years.

US Vanadium is the only current producer in the United States of high-purity vanadium pentoxide flake, a strategic material used to manufacture aerospace-grade titanium alloys for defense, aerospace, space, and advanced manufacturing applications.

The United States remains heavily dependent on imported vanadium. In 2025, domestic production totaled approximately 7,500 metric tons, compared to U.S. consumption of roughly 13,000 metric tons. The United States imports most of its vanadium pentoxide from Brazil and South Africa, and ferrovanadium from Russia and China.

The company operates two facilities in Arkansas that recover and process vanadium from petroleum refining and other post-industrial waste streams, producing some of the world’s highest-purity vanadium oxides, which are essential for high-strength steel alloys, missile and aerospace systems, space vehicles, nuclear reactors, aircraft carriers, night-vision equipment, and other applications.

The award follows US Vanadium’s 2025 launch of domestic production of high-purity vanadium pentoxide flake production, it said, adding that the project was supported by funding from the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency’s Research and Development Office and Traxys North America. 

“This award represents another important milestone in expanding America’s domestic critical minerals processing capacity, as the U.S. is overwhelmingly reliant upon foreign sources for vanadium,” TechMet CEO Brian Menell said in a news release.

• [Editor:tianyawei]