Niobium
A pinch of niobium makes steel stronger and lighter; Brazil supplies over 90% of the world's output.
Steel & alloying · No. 18
- EU critical 2023
- US critical 2025
- India critical 2023
- HHI 8,580 · highly concentrated
Nine-tenths of the world's niobium comes from one country, Brazil, yet most people have never heard of it.
Chart: Illustration: Niobium
Where it comes from
Chart: Map of where it comes from
Niobium sits in pyrochlore inside carbonatites, unusual igneous rocks made mostly of carbonate minerals. Brazil's deposits in Minas Gerais and Goiás dominate; Canada's Niobec mine is a distant second.
Three things to know
- Just 0.01-0.1% niobium makes pipeline, car and structural steels stronger and tougher.
- US ferroniobium prices barely moved, staying at $25-26 a kilogram from 2022 to 2025.
- China holds 6.5 million tonnes of niobium reserves yet mines very little of it.
The journey
- 1 Pyrochlore oreMined from rare carbonatite rocks
- 2 ConcentrateUpgraded to Nb2O5 concentrate
- 3 FerroniobiumReduced to an alloy of about 65% niobium
- 4 End usesMicroalloyed steel, superalloys, superconductors