Niobium: the mighty element you’ve never heard of - Rest of World

Ongoing tensions over the rare earth metal are shaping the future of China and Brazil.

Julia Pontes By Devi Lockwood and Leo Schwartz 25 November 2020 In August 2016, a video went viral on YouTube. Shot at a mine owned by Companhia Brasileira de Metalurgia e Mineração (CBMM), a privately held Brazilian company, it featured Jair Bolsonaro, then a congressman running for president. “The world talks a lot about Silicon Valley, right?” Bolsonaro says in the video. “I dream, who knows, that one day, we’ll also have a Niobium Valley.” Niobium , a rare earth metal, is used in practically everything . Wind turbines, jet engines, airplane bodies, high-pressure pipelines, superconducting

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