Niobium

[#33]

A few snippets for introductory content on niobium for those want to learn more about the element and what WA1 has found.

An article published yesterday in the FT about niobium producer Companhia Brasileira de Metalurgia e Mineração (CBMM) expecting strong demand growth in the coming years.

Niobium is ranked the second-most “critical mineral” by the US Geological Survey, which estimates that 90 per cent of total output is from Brazil.

See https://www.ft.com/content/486100f4-5016-4bc4-b5a8-cd4ef9a19181 .

Niobium (Nb) is a ductile refractory metal that is highly resistant to heat and wear. Like tantalum, it is resistant to corrosion owing to the formation of a surface oxide layer.

Approximately 90% of niobium use is attributed to the steel industry, predominantly as a micro alloy with iron. The addition of small, relatively cheap, amounts of niobium (much less than 1%) significantly increases the strength and decreases the weight of steel products. This results in more economic, beneficial products for use in the construction industry (e.g., beams in buildings, bridges, oil rigs, railway tracks), in gas and oil pipelines, and in the automotive industry where weight savings result in increased performance and fuel reduction.

Niobium, along with other refractory elements such as tantalum, is also used in nickel and nickel-iron superalloys, particularly for applications requiring strength and heat resistance. Uses for such superalloys include turbine blades in jet engines within the aeronautic industry, and gas turbines in the energy industry.Niobium becomes a superconductor at very low temperatures. When alloyed with titanium (NbTi) or tin (Nb3Sn), it produces the superconducting magnets used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) equipment and particle accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.

Other uses for niobium include in glass for applications such as corrective spectacles and camera lenses, within jewellery, in prosthetics and medical implants, in niobium capacitors in electronic circuits, in sodium vapour lamps, and in cutting tools.

Niobium is one of a suite of commodities identified by the Australian Government as critical minerals, (minerals or elements considered vital for the well-being of the world's economies, yet whose supply may be at risk of disruption). Niobium is essential for advanced technology.

Niobium shares many of its properties with tantalum. This close association has led to use of the 'coltan' terminology, short for columbite-tantalites, reflecting the niobium-dominant (columbite) and tantalum-dominant (tantalite) end-members of this oxide mineral series. Despite this common terminology, most of the world's niobium resource is hosted within the mineral pyrochlore.

Australia's niobium resource is confined to a small number of deposits, largely as a by-product or co-product of rare earth element or rare earth element-zirconium mineralisation in peralkaline rocks and carbonatites. Examples of these include the Mount Weld carbonatite (Western Australia), the Toongi Trachyte, which is the peralkaline host for the mineralisation of the Dubbo Project (New South Wales) and the Brockman deposit (northern Western Australia).

Reported grades in these deposits range from 3100 to 3500 ppm (Toongi, Brockman) to 7400 ppm (Mount Weld). Reported host minerals for niobium and tantalum in these deposits include natroniobite at Dubbo, columbite and yttrium-bearing rare earth niobates at Brockman, and columbite, niobium-enriched titanium minerals (ilmenite, rutile) and pyrochlore at Mount Weld. Pegmatites form a minor host for Australia's niobium inventory, where it commonly occurs as a by-product with tantalum mineralisation, e.g., Greenbushes, Wodgina (both Western Australia). Where reported, niobium grades in these deposits are <100 ppm, generally similar to, or lower than, associated tantalum grades. Common niobium-tantalum minerals found in Australian pegmatites include columbo-tantalite, stibiotantalite, wodginite, ixiolite and microlite.

Some might remember, tantalum was an important byproduct that supported PLS when lithium prices tanked previously as they started the Pilgangora mine.

See https://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/minerals/mineral-resources-and-advice/australian-resource-reviews/niobium .Niobium prices are currently reported to range from around US$45 per kilogram for standard ferroniobium metal and greater than US$50 per kilogram for niobium pentoxide (Nb2O5). Higher purity and more specialised products realise higher prices. The volatility of niobium prices is extremely low, one key factor in customer supply-chain certainty.

See https://www.asianmetal.com/Niobium/ and https://www.metal.com/Niobium-Tantalum/201102250606 .


— DK.. just some thoughts, do your due diligence and decide your own actions.