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The News About Venezuela’s Movements to Explore and Sell the Mineral to Russia Raises an Alert in the Government Is False
In August 2020, a military report alerted the Planalto about Venezuela’s movements to explore and sell niobium to Russia. The illegal extraction of niobium by the Venezuelan government and Russia’s entry into the game worried the military. However, there is no evidence that this fact is true.
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The military area reminds the Planalto that the United States defined niobium as a strategic material for Brazil’s development. The metal is mainly used in the production of special steels and superalloys and acts as an “enhancer”: only 400 grams per ton are needed to produce lighter and more resistant steels.
According to data from the Geological Survey of Brazil – CPRM, a public company linked to the Ministry of Mines and Energy, Brazil is responsible for about 98% of the world’s niobium reserves and 90% of the total transactions related to the mineral. However, there is no indication of smuggling of the mineral to the countries mentioned in the released report. Experts say that the commercialization of niobium is financially unattractive in this illegal activity.
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Espírito Santo will receive the largest engineering project in its history with the duplication of BR 262, which will have 50 viaducts, 28 bridges, and 2-kilometer tunnels cutting through the most challenging mountainous region of the entire state.
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A couple builds a system to bring water from the spring to their land, climbs a hill with materials on their backs, and creates a simple, cheap, and sustainable solution to ensure their own water supply.
The Scourge of Illegal Mining
The state of Amazonas, where the niobium deposits are located, is also the state with the most threatened indigenous reserves – a total of 30 viewed by land grabbers, large landowners, and oil and gas companies.
The mining companies have pressured for a change in Brazilian legislation, so that it allows them not only to mine in a reserve, but also in protected indigenous lands across the country.
This change could be introduced through the long-stalled mining law in Congress; however, it faces a series of obstacles. One of them comes from the Brazilian Constitution.
The Brazilian Constitution states that no measures can be authorized to allow mining in indigenous areas until a series of prerequisites are met, including the consent of the affected communities.
The Mines and Energy Commission, for example, has also already rejected a proposal that created a national policy for the production of niobium and required that only 100% Brazilian companies could explore niobium. Three other projects on niobium processing were rejected by the same Commission (PLs 1581/15, 11088/18, and 11249/18).
Niobium – also known as columbium – is relatively uncommon in the world but abundant in Brazil. It is an important element used as an additive in metallurgical products for industrial applications, including automobiles, airplanes, pipelines, spacecraft, nuclear weapons, and even drilling.
More and more, this mineral has become essential for technology and is sought after in the market for its resistance to high temperatures and corrosion. In addition, niobium is the metallic element with the lowest concentration in the Earth’s crust, found in nature at a ratio of 24 parts per million.
Niobium (Nb) is a transition metal, and it got its name because it was inspired by the Greek goddess Niobe, who also named the character (cat) in the series Roma. It mainly occurs as an oxide and has a strong geochemical coherence with tantalum.
The main niobium minerals are pyrochlore [(Na, Ca) 2Nb2O6F] and columbite [(Fe, Mn) (Nb, Ta) 2O6], composed of niobate, tantalate, iron, and manganese. Columbite is found in intrusive pegmatites and biotite and in alkaline granites. However, since most of these deposits are small and poorly distributed, they are usually extracted as a byproduct of other metals.
Brief History of Niobium Exploration in Brazil
The first major niobium reserve in the world was discovered in 1960 in Araxá. Five years later, American Arthur W. Radford, a member of the board of the mining company Molycorp, and Brazilian banker Walther Moreira Salles set up an exploration company for this element.
The association between the Brazilian banker’s investments and the mining company where the American was a counselor – which had acquired some mines in Araxá – resulted in the establishment of the Brazilian Company of Metallurgy and Mining (CBMM).
In 1965, the Brazilian government allowed the Brazilian Company of Metallurgy and Mining (CBMM), in partnership with the American government, to explore the available reserves in the country. At that time, niobium had not yet proven its utility.
Only in 1970, after some studies attributed commercial uses to niobium. It was during this time that Salles, also the owner of Banco Itaú, gradually began to buy the portion of the company that belonged to the Americans.
CBMM markets niobium in the form of metallic alloys, such as ferroniobium, which consists of 2/3 niobium and 1/3 iron. In 2011, the Brazilian Company of Metallurgy and Mining negotiated 30% of its shares with an Asian company with some stipulations, among them, that confidentiality regarding the niobium processing stages developed by Salles’s company be maintained.
Anglo American Brazil extracts niobium in Catalão, Goiás. Similarly, we can mention the reserves of this mineral that exist in the Amazon. There are two known niobium deposits in the region, in Seis Lagos and Santa Isabel do Rio Negro.
What Is the Probability of Niobium Development in the Amazon?
Consisting of a biological reserve that covers 36,900 hectares (91,181 acres) of primary rainforest, Seis Lagos also includes a hill of inselberg – an isolated rock protuberance – and six lakes, each with differently colored water due to various dissolved minerals, such as iron, manganese, and niobium.
Seis Lagos, located in São Gabriel da Cachoeira (AM), has mining rights from the Geological Survey of Brazil/CPRM, with around 2.9Gton at 2.81% Nb2O5, which would yield about 81.4 Mton of contained niobium oxide, or about 14 times the current known reserves worldwide.
Between Seis Lagos and Santa Isabel do Rio Negro lies Pico da Neblina, the highest peak in Brazil at 2,995 meters (9,827 feet) above sea level. The niobium deposits are located in the Rio Negro basin, the largest blackwater river basin in the world. Twenty-three indigenous groups, including the Yanomami people, live in the Brazilian portion of the Rio Negro basin.
The country has enough reserves to sustain the world’s niobium demand for the next 200 years. Overall, 98.2% of the world’s niobium reserves are in Brazil.
There is significant betting and speculation regarding the commercialization of niobium and the benefits it could bring to Brazil; however, despite the possibilities of using the mineral, it can be replaced by vanadium or titanium, for example, which are more accessible to other countries. The cost of niobium exploration is still very high.
Finally, the amount of niobium needed for the production of industrial use alloys is very small, causing a devaluation by the law of supply and demand. For niobium to be sold at higher prices, it would be ideal to add value to the mineral by using it in new technologies and avoiding selling the compound as a raw material.
Brazil Is the World Leader in Niobium Production
Almost all niobium in the world is in Brazil. The country is recognized as a leading producer and participant in the global market for minerals commodities, especially for metallic minerals. Among these, iron ore, copper, gold, aluminum, and niobium stand out.
According to the National Mining Agency (ANM), the country holds about 98% of the operating niobium deposits in the world, which represents a dominance of 82% in the global market.
The largest Brazilian reserves are concentrated in the city of Araxá (MG) with 75% of niobium deposits, followed by Amazonas with 21% of non-commercial deposits, and another 4% are in Catalão (GO).
The Brazilian Company of Metallurgy and Mining (CBMM) is responsible for niobium exploration in Brazil under a concession regime. Brazilian niobium is highly sought after in international markets, with no national exploration, as it is destined for export.
In 2018, CBMM sent 95,000 tons of ferroniobium, metallic niobium, niobium oxide to the external market, according to a survey by Revista Pesquisa Fapesp.
Approximately 10% of all steel produced worldwide contains Niobium as an alloying element. China is the main market demanding this element, consuming about 25% of the world’s total production, mainly for steel production (producing about half of the world’s steel).
Brazilian Company of Metallurgy and Mining Increases Ferroniobium Capacity to Meet Growing Demand from the Technology Sector
The Brazilian Company of Metallurgy and Mining recently completed a US $ 555 million expansion at its ferroniobium plant in Araxá, Minas Gerais, in southeastern Brazil. This will provide an increase in sales of ferroalloy that mainly supplies the global automotive sector, renewable energy, and electronics.
The ferroniobium capacity at the CBMM plant was estimated at around 100,000 tons/year before the expansion. With this expansion, the plant’s ferroniobium production capacity increased to 150,000 tons/year, more than current total market demand of about 110,000 tons/year.
The ferroniobium market shrank to about 95,000 tons in 2020 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, CBMM sold about 72,000 tons of ferroniobium.
The use of ferroniobium is growing in applications of high-strength low-alloy steel in the automotive industry, superalloys for turbines, including wind turbines, in semiconductors, medical imaging equipment, and is also used in pipelines, he said. Niobium oxide is the raw material for producing superalloys.
Brazil holds the largest niobium reserves in the world, and CBMM is the largest producer of niobium in the world, producing niobium oxide and ferroniobium, which it describes as its main business and flagship product.
Brazil produces the Fe-Nb alloy and other products while actively participating in all segments involving Niobium. CBMM – Brazilian Company of Metallurgy and Mining (private) holds about 80% of national production, with the remainder from Mineração Catalão de Goiás; CBMM mines open-pit and without the use of explosives.
Ferroniobium is also produced by China Molybdenum Corp in Brazil and by Niobec in Canada. Other countries with potential niobium deposits include: Angola, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Denmark, Finland, Gabon, Tanzania, Nigeria, Malawi, Ethiopia, USA, among others.
1st Brazilian Niobium Fair and the Inauguration of New CNPEM/MCTI Facilities in Campinas (SP)
The President of the Republic, Jair Bolsonaro, and ministers Marcos Pontes, of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), and Milton Ribeiro, of the Ministry of Education (MEC), participate in the afternoon of October 8, 2021, in a series of events and inaugurations at the National Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM), a social organization supervised by MCTI.
Niobium, considered one of the “new metals,” has had its use highlighted by cutting-edge technologies that have emerged in recent years. In Brazil, the most explored are especially Rare Earth Metals (REE), niobium, tantalum, lithium, vanadium, copper, and nickel.
The 1st Brazilian Niobium Fair showcased products already developed by companies in collaboration with academia, aiming to apply the mineral to contribute to Brazil’s positioning in the global scenario as a reference for the production, characterization, and application of niobium.
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