About Niobium
What is Niobium?
Niobium (Nb) is an alloying agent which, when added to steel, creates a material with substantial benefits. Niobium is a rare and a soft transition metal primarily used in the production of high grade steel. Steel containing niobium has many properties making it stronger, lighter in weight and highly resistant to corrosion. Adding niobium to steel also creates steel with a higher melting point. Ferroniobium (66% Niobium, 34% Iron) represents over 90% of world niobium production. Molybdenum and vanadium can be substituted for niobium in some applications, but a performance or cost penalty may outweigh substitution. For many applications, such as some super alloys and oil and gas pipelines, there are no substitutes for niobium as the niobium allows for withstanding extreme pressures.
Niobium Uses
• High Strength Low Alloy (HSLA) steel – Bridges, Buildings, Car Bodies, Oil & Gas Pipelines, Rail Tracks, Ships Hulls
• Super Alloys used in the aerospace industry
• Green technologies – Wind Turbines, Electric Engines
Niobium Market and Reasons for Growth
• U.S. imports 100% of supply - Brazil (84%), Canada (9%) and Germany (2%)
• Niobium is considered a “strategic metal” by the US, as it is essential for National Security and industry
• European Union classify Niobium as a “critical metal” - lack of substitutes, no European production
•“Niobium demand has grown at a 10% compound annual growth rate over the last 10 years and is forecast to increase steadily going forward.” Carol Banducci, CFO, IAMGOLD
•Only 10% of worldwide steel production contains niobium – expected to rise to as much as 20%
•Developed countries utilize roughly 100 g/t of steel – while China only utilizes 40 g/t
•China produces almost 40% of world steel, but currently consumes a much smaller percentage of world Niobium production than their steel production would suggest, but they are expected to grow their Niobium consumption to match steel production
Who Produces Niobium and Where
Brazil is the world’s largest producer of niobium (92%), followed by Canada. Brazil has two of the largest niobium deposits in the world, the Araxá and the Catalão deposits. The Araxá mine is operated by CBMM, decreasing grades are increasing operating costs at the mine. The Catalão mine owned by Anglo American Brazil, may run out of ore if the deposit size can not be increased. The third-largest producer is the Niobec deposit in Quebec, owned by IAMGOLD Corp. Niobec’s grade of Niobium is falling the deeper they are being forced to mine.
Niobium Prices
Niobium prices are negotiated between buyers and sellers and does not have a spot price like most commodities. Prices have risen steadily since the year 2000 from $13.50 a Kg to around $45 a kg in 2010. With only a few producers, the lack of new supply expected to come on stream anytime soon and increasing demand niobium prices are expected to remain high.
About Rare Earths
What are they?
A collection of 17 chemical elements in the periodic table, namely scandium, yttrium, and the fifteen lanthanides. Most commonly used for high tech applications, their incorporation enabling and making possible a vast range of applications and products we take for granted every day. Importantly they cannot generally be replaced by an alternative, making them virtually essential to our technological world as we know it.
A few notable higher profile applications include neodymium permanent magnets, used in powerful compact motors for electric cars and hybrids, along with wind turbines. High efficiency light bulbs, gasoline processing, MRI machines in hospitals, TV and computer screens for the color reproduction, solar panels made more efficient, magnetic applications from mp3 player ear buds to hard disk drives.
Technological progress and environmentally sustainable development depends on REE’s.
Where are they ?
Widely dispersed in the Earth’s crust. However, REE deposits of high concentration are relatively rare, those that give the best yield and economic return. Historically REE’s were sourced from placer sand deposits in India and Brazil, then Africa and now China produces over 97% of the worlds REE needs, and consumes around 60%.
New project sites include Canada, the US and Australia, showing economic high yield potential. A number of projects are nearing production in those areas, highlighting the great potential of those zones.
Why are they getting so much attention?
It’s a result of REE’s indispensability and maintaining supply, based on China’s September 1st 2009 announcement to progressively reduce its export quota to 35,000 tons per year in 2010-2015.
Today great efforts are being directed toward finding new sources. Not only to enable a release from Chinas monopoly on REE, but help localize over US$1 Billion value of REE products consumed in the US (USGS estimate).
Further reading; the USGS notes....
High-technology and environmental applications of the rare earth elements (REE) have grown dramatically in diversity and importance over the past four decades. As many of these applications are highly specific, in that substitutes for the REE are inferior or unknown, the REE have acquired a level of technological significance much greater than expected from their relative obscurity. Although actually more abundant than many familiar industrial metals, the REE have much less tendency to become concentrated in exploitable ore deposits. Consequently, most of the world’s supply comes from only a few sources.
The diverse nuclear, metallurgical, chemical, catalytic, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties of the REE have led to an ever increasing variety of applications. These uses range from mundane (lighter flints, glass polishing) to high-tech (phosphors, lasers, magnets, batteries, magnetic refrigeration) to futuristic (high-temperature superconductivity, safe storage and transport of hydrogen for a post-hydrocarbon economy).
The rare earth elements are essential for a diverse and expanding array of high-technology applications, which constitute an important part of the industrial economy of the United States. Long-term shortage or unavailability of REE would force significant changes in many technological aspects of American society. Domestic REE sources, known and potential, may therefore become an increasingly important issue for scientists and policymakers in both the public and private sectors
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