Niobium is an important industrial raw material with good corrosion resistance, fatigue resistance, deformation resistance and thermoelectric conductivity. It is widely used in steel industry, aerospace industry, military industry and nuclear industry. Eighty percent of the region's iron ore products are used in the iron and steel industry, and over 90 percent of the industrial superconducting materials are made of niobium and tantalum alloy conductors, which is an important strategic resource. This paper introduces the development history, production and consumption situation and market characteristics of global niobium mine application, summarizes and analyzes the current investment situation of world resources, and emphatically introduces the main global niobium mineral resources in the exploration and development stage.
Until the 1950s, niobium metals could not be widely used because of their scarcity and high production costs. Then, the use of niobium in the steel industry became possible as large greenstone deposits were discovered and developed at niobium mines in Brazil and Quebec. This paper introduces the production, consumption and investment of global niobium mineral resources, and analyzes the niobium mineral resources in production and in development.
Niobium (Nb) is a kind of refractory rare metal, which is shiny silver-white metal. It has good corrosion resistance, fatigue resistance, deformation resistance, thermoelectric conductivity, excellent electron generation performance at high temperature, small thermal neutron capture cross section and excellent superconducting performance. In the state of nature, generally exists in niobium and niobium niobium elements tantalite, pyrochlore and black thin gold mine.
The use of niobium began in 1925, when it was added to tool steel to replace part of tungsten, and in 1933 niobium was first used as an additive to stabilize austenitic stainless steel. In the 1940s niobium was added to a superheat alloy used to make steam turbines. The use of niobium in ordinary carbon steel dates back to the 1930s.
