South Africa is the world’s largest primary producer of vanadium and the world’s third-largest producer of vanadium feedstocks.

It was previously a much larger source of global supply, but its relative share of production declined and never recovered after the Highveld operation shut down in 2015.

The country is home to operations to produce the full suite of vanadium products, and demand for vanadium, in steel, batteries and other applications is set to rise, but will South Africa be able to play a defining role in the story?