The discovery of niobium dates back more than 200 years, its name is a reference to Greek gods and its fame grew notably with the advancement of the narrative of the then federal deputy, President Jair Bolsonaro.
The protagonist of the discussion here is Niobium, an element with atomic number 41 in the periodic table and with an average crustal concentration equal to that of the elements Lithium and Nitrogen, about 4 thousand times greater than Gold, as recorded in the table of the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 85 Edition.
First named columbium, in 1801, by its discoverer Charles Hatchett, referring to the place where the sample was collected, the United States, which at the time bore the popular name of Columbia, derived from the name of Christopher Columbus.
After being confused with tantalum, it was not until 1846 that Heinrich Rose proved that the elements were different. While the name columbium was still retained by some researchers, others adopted the name niobium in reference to Niobe, the daughter of Tantalus in Greek mythology.
Its first use and discovery
Niobium's first industrial use was in the production of light bulb filaments, until tungsten took over the leading position. When the steel industry came to the conclusion that it was interesting to mix small amounts of niobium with iron, the search for reserves of considerable volume became vigorous.
It was in the 1960s, in Araxá, that the first discovery took place. From a partnership between Walther Moreira Salles and Molycorp, the Companhia Brasileira de Metalurgia e Mineração (CBMM) was born.
After the gradual purchase of Molycorp's share by the Moreira Sales Group, the company opened its capital to the entry of a group of steel manufacturers and a Japanese-South Korean consortium.
What is Brazil's position today?
Holding around 98% of the niobium deposits in operation in the world, Brazil is followed by Canada and Australia . According to statistics from the 2017 Brazilian Mineral Yearbook, still producing through the former DNPM, now ANM, Brazilian reserves total 842 million tons .
With 75% of this total in Araxá, another 21% are in non-commercial deposits in the Amazon and 4% in Catalão, in the operations of CMOC, a subsidiary of China Molybdenum.
CBMM mine in Araxá, where the ore currently mined is in the weathered zone.
But if we have the largest reserves, the largest producing mine, and the holder of the best process for obtaining high-purity metallic niobium, what prevents the generation of income from this natural resource?
Below we present some myths and truths about Niobium , related to:
- The value and production;
- The rarity;
- Exclusivity and applications;
- Global greed – simple extraction, expensive processing;
- Collection by Codemig;
- Smuggling and connection with tantalum in the Amazon;
Production of metallic niobium by CBMM.
The value and production of niobium
With an average price of US$40/kilo , one of the myths held is that the whitish metal is more valuable than gold, which is by far a fallacy, since gold reaches US$40,000/kilo .
The limited market absorption means that the price of niobium has not undergone such sudden variations in the last decade, and this is also because ferroniobium is not a commodity . Its value is not traded on the Stock Exchange, but is established by global demand , which has also been quite stable over the last decade and has been around 110,000 tons per year. If demand does not increase, the price will not increase either.
Its applications have low material consumption to achieve the objective and gain in performance required. A typical example is that with the addition of just 300 grams of niobium, one ton of automotive steel becomes stronger and lighter , as shown in the text “The controversial niobium” jointly authored by Fapesp, Poli-Usp and Unicamp.
And its rarity?
Another widely publicized claim is: niobium is extremely rare and unique . Well, from a geological point of view, no, but from a technological point of view, yes.
Geologically, as mentioned above, niobium has an average concentration in the Earth's crust close to common elements , such as nitrogen, and this means that it is not rare in nature.
Furthermore, at least 90 carbonatite complexes with a genesis similar to the CBMM deposit are known , and of these, more than 50 have data published in the literature regarding their niobium resources.
From a technological and economic point of view, the position of the deposit, the shallower mineral body, therefore the low mining cost, and the high levels found in Brazil, make the condition of Brazilian reserves rare/exceptional.
Furthermore, most of the minerals containing the element do not have an established technological route that allows their use . The treatment route for pyrochlore, the main mineral containing niobium in Brazilian reserves, is under national control, and CBMM is responsible for supplying this niche of industry consumption.
Thus, the combination of reserves in a favorable position and condition, high grades and the mastery of a high-performance route for beneficiation and metallurgy create an exceptional condition for national niobium from a market perspective.
Exclusivity
Another important point to highlight is that the properties added to steel obtained with the addition of niobium can also be obtained with the addition of other elements such as titanium and vanadium. Therefore, with a significant increase in the price of niobium, these options would become more economically competitive.
The strategy of not making the development of certain technologies in a nation conditional on the supply of an input that has a single supplier is a crucial geopolitical factor for understanding the international niobium market. In other words, several countries have chosen to develop technologies and applications for other substitute elements rather than placing themselves in a position of dependence on the supply of niobium.
Examples such as vanadium from South Africa and Russia, and titanium from India, Canada and New Zealand, highlight countries that have chosen to explore their own reserves , rather than being exposed to the risk of Niobium supply.
Recently, such a risk has already been experienced in the international mineral scenario with the cuts in the supply of Rare Earth Elements by China.
Applications
The main products produced by CBMM and their applications are the ferroniobium alloy, with 65% Niobium and 35% Iron, with direct application in the steel industry.
Niobium oxides are used in the manufacture of camera lenses, electric vehicle batteries and telescope lenses . Vacuum grade niobium alloys, with a high level of purity, are used in the production of aircraft turbines, rocket engines and ground turbines for generating electricity.
Finally, metallic niobium is used in superconducting wires that equip tomographs, magnetic resonance devices and even participate in the LHD – CERN's famous particle accelerator.
The final product of metallic niobium are solid cylinders composed of 99% of the metal , and at this purity it has superconducting properties and high corrosion resistance , presented by Tadeu Carneiro, president of CBMM, in the 2016 panel that can be consulted in the link at the end of the text.
The world's greed
In fact, Niobium is coveted worldwide for being a strategic mineral, since it can provide a considerable increase in resistance to steel , thus ensuring the same reliability using thinner steel blades and materials, which are therefore lighter and ultimately more efficient in transport and energy use systems .
State revenue via CODEMIG
CODEMIG has a dividend sharing agreement with CBMM for the lease of its areas in Araxá to the company. The agreement guarantees that the state will receive 25% of CBMM's net profit, received through the state-owned company. Due to the current financial difficulties, the state has put on the agenda the privatization of the state-owned company and the advance payment of receivables from the profits of the agreement.
In 2018, the state of Minas Gerais received R$900 million from the operation, while federal revenue from CFEM was R$22 million.
Extraction in the Amazon
Finally, it is also a fact that niobium and tantalum are smuggled from the Amazon through clandestine airports along the routes of illegal logging companies. Niobium is found together with tantalum in the mineral columbite-tantalite, typically extracted in Amazonian gold mines.
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Also access the article's reference links:
https://www.quimlab.com.br/guiadoselementos/abundancia_elementos.htm
https://adrianachiarimagazine.net/blog/2019/6/28/niobio-mitos-e-verdade
https://g1.globo.com/natureza/blog/andre-trigueiro/post/2018/12/18/o-mito-do-niobio.ghtml
https://economia.uol.com.br/noticias/redacao/2019/06/28/niobio-comercio-limitado-monopolio.htm