What Is Niobium? Element 41, Its Properties, Uses and Sources

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TL;DR

• Niobium is chemical element 41, symbol Nb, a silvery metal that resists corrosion.
• Most niobium ends up in steel. About 77% of US use goes to steels and 23% to superalloys, the USGS says.
• Brazil supplied about 93% and Canada about 5% of world mine production in 2025, according to the USGS.

What is niobium? It is chemical element 41, symbol Nb. The Royal Society of Chemistry element profile describes it as a silvery metal that resists corrosion because a thin oxide layer forms on its surface. Most niobium ends up in steel, the USGS says, where small additions make the metal stronger and tougher.

Niobium is on the US governments final 2025 List of Critical Minerals, which names 60 minerals. The USGS entry for niobium gives one use: used to strengthen steel.

What is niobium? The niobium element in brief

Niobium sits in group 5 and period 5 of the periodic table, among the transition metals. According to the Royal Society of Chemistry, it has a density of 8.57 grams per cubic centimeter. It melts at 2,477°C and boils at 4,741°C.

The US Geological Survey describes niobium as a lustrous, gray, ductile metal. Ductile means it can be drawn into wire without breaking. It combines a high melting point with a relatively low density, and it is a superconductor at very low temperatures.

Niobium never occurs in nature as a pure metal. It sits inside minerals, almost always alongside tantalum, its chemical twin. Its average abundance in the continental crust is about 8.0 parts per million, according to the USGS. The Royal Society of Chemistry says it has no known biological role.

What was the former name for niobium?

The former name for niobium is columbium. English chemist Charles Hatchett discovered the element in 1801 and named it after Columbia, a poetic name for North America, according to the USGS professional paper on niobium and tantalum.

Doubts followed. In 1844 Heinrich Rose showed that the mineral Hatchett studied held two different elements, and he renamed columbium niobium, the Royal Society of Chemistry says. He took the name from Niobe, daughter of Tantalus in Greek myth, as a nod to tantalum, the element niobium so closely resembles.

Both names stayed in use for another century. In 1949 the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry officially adopted niobium, the USGS says. Even so, the older word has not vanished: the USGS still heads its annual commodity summary Niobium (Columbium). Christian Blomstrand made the first sample of the pure metal in 1864, the Royal Society of Chemistry adds.

Niobium metal and superconductivity

A superconductor carries electric current with no resistance once it is cooled below a critical temperature. At normal pressure, niobium becomes superconducting at about 9.2 kelvin, a higher temperature than any other element, according to a Furukawa Electric paper on niobium superconductors from the early 1980s. That is about nine degrees above absolute zero.

Its alloys stay superconducting while carrying large currents. The Royal Society of Chemistry notes that niobium is used in superconducting magnets for MRI scanners, NMR equipment and particle accelerators. How each of those uses works is a subject of its own.

Where niobium comes from and what it is used for

Mining of niobium is concentrated in very few places. Most of the worlds identified resources occur as pyrochlore, a niobium-bearing mineral, in carbonatites, according to the USGS 2026 niobium summary. Carbonatites are igneous rocks made mostly of carbonate minerals. World mine production was about 112,000 metric tons in 2025, by USGS estimate. Brazil supplied about 93% and Canada about 5%.

Use is just as concentrated. In the United States, steels take about 77% of niobium and superalloys about 23%, the USGS estimates. Steelmakers buy it mostly as ferroniobium, an iron-niobium alloy, while aerospace companies use niobium alloys and metal. The Royal Society of Chemistry lists jet engines, rockets, building beams, oil rigs and pipelines among the end uses. Niobium oxide added to glass also allows thinner corrective lenses.

About the sponsor of this article

NiobiumX Mining Inc. (CSE: NIOX; OTC: NIOXF) paid for this article. It is an early-stage exploration company that describes its focus as niobium and rare earth elements, and it produces neither. The NiobiumX Mining website describes its project, and its directors and officers appear on the NiobiumX management team page.

That project is the Shipshaw Property in Quebecs Saguenay region: 48 mineral claims over about 2,686 hectares, by the companys count. Its NI 43-101 technical report, effective February 17, 2026 and filed on SEDAR+, covers 9 of the 48 claims, about 514 hectares, and its conclusions focus mainly on rare earth elements.

Exploration is meant to test whether the property holds either commodity in amounts worth mining. The Shipshaw Property has no mineral resource or reserve estimate, and the company says none may ever be established.

Niobec, a producing niobium mine, operates in the same region. Owning no part of Niobec, NiobiumX says it has no interest in the mine. Sharing a region says nothing about what Shipshaw contains.

NiobiumX has no revenue. It pays for exploration by raising money, which can dilute existing shareholders, and its exploration may not find an economic deposit.

Key facts

• Niobium is element 41, symbol Nb, and melts at 2,477°C (Royal Society of Chemistry).
• Charles Hatchett named it columbium in 1801; niobium became the official name in 1949 (USGS).
• At normal pressure it becomes superconducting at about 9.2 kelvin, the highest temperature of any element (Furukawa Electric paper, early 1980s).
• Brazil supplied about 93% and Canada about 5% of an estimated 112,000 metric tons of world mine production in 2025 (USGS).
• US niobium use is about 77% steels and 23% superalloys (USGS).
• Niobium is on the final 2025 US List of Critical Minerals (USGS).

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This article was commissioned by Altura Media Co. Inc. as part of its paid marketing campaign for NiobiumX Mining Inc. NiobiumX Mining Inc. Compensation creates a conflict of interest. This is paid promotional content, not independent investment research or individualized investment advice. Alturas campaign compensation does not replace the contributor-specific disclosures above. Read the full NiobiumX Mining Inc. campaign disclosure.

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