Re rate happening, page-3525

So what are our chances of finding Niobium ? Obviously very much needed!

• Is surging investor interest in niobium more than just a flash in the pan?

Niobium has caught the eyes of punters thanks to a spectacular discovery a few weeks ago by WA1 Resources (ASX:WA1) in a fairly remote part of the world, around 493km south of Halls Creek in Western Australia’s Kimberley region.

The former $3m market cap minnow (now ~$92.28m) hit niobium-rare earths paydirt in its first hole at the P2 target, part of the West Arunta Project, with hits such as 54m at 0.62% niobium, 0.18% rare earths and 3.85% phosphorus from 162m.

News of the breakthrough sent WA1’s share price flying 220% on the day with the company’s managing director Paul Savich describing the discovery of a mineralised carbonatite system in the West Arunta as ‘the first of its kind’.

But what exactly is niobium and what is it used for?

READ: Has WA1’s niobium-rare earths discovery unlocked a new mineral province?

Niobium in steel

Often confused and misinterpreted as part of the rare earth family, niobium’s bread and butter is in the making of high-strength, low-alloy steel (HSLA), which accounts for around 90pc of its overall demand.

Adding a very small amount of ferroniobium (an alloy of iron and niobium) to steel makes it lighter and stronger, perfect in areas such as construction for use in oil and gas pipelines as well as in the aviation and transport sectors helping to reduce overall weight, improve fuel efficiencies and reduce emissions.

As a refractory element, niobium is also highly resistant to heat and water and is a great superconductor in applications such as in magnets in the manufacture of MRI scanners, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) medical diagnostic equipment, and Maglev trains which travel at speeds of up to 430kmh along a magnetic railway.

Its resistance to physiological corrosion and biocompatibility means it can adapt to any sterilisation method and is therefore used in the manufacture of bone plates, dental implant roots, surgical appliances, and skull plate bone screws.

Niobium in battery applications

There are also many developing use cases for the niche metal, for example as a superconductor material in battery applications where niobium titanium oxide is being explored as a next generation anode material for large scale energy storage.

But according to capital markets veteran and resources analyst, Peter Strachan, these will take years to come online.

“Everyone is looking for the new lithium – WA1 went from $0.15 to $1.90 after its discovery of the stuff but I think this will end in tears because it’s the sign of a very hot market,” he says.

“There was a big push for nickel and then cobalt and now Tesla is using lithium iron phosphate batteries, which have no nickel or cobalt in them at all.

“The chemistry for these solid-state batteries is changing very, very rapidly and now CATL – the big Chinese battery maker – is making sodium-ion batteries because lithium has become so expensive,” Strachan explains.

“I think investors should be very cautious – there is a lot of hype around niobium at the moment, it’s the new black in the whole pantheon of battery metals but I think it might be a flash in the pan.”

Even if niobium’s value in the battery sector has been overblown, it is worth pointing out this doesn’t detract from its traditional uses.