The development of an ion exchange process for the recovery of vanadium from solutions containing low concentrations of vanadium and/or slurries is discussed. The process can be used to improve overall vanadium recovery throughout the plant, and/or to reduce the vanadium concentration of waste materials prior to their disposal. The development of the process on a laboratory and miniplant scale is discussed, and includes:selection of a suitable resin with the desired loading and elution characteristics;laboratory-scale testwork to evaluate the use of the resin in both resin-in-pulp and fixed bed configurations;recovery of a high-value vanadium product from the resin eluate; anda preliminary techno-economic assessment of the financial viability of the process.