Niobium is considered to be a critical and strategic commodity because of the metal’s specialized applications in defense, energy, high-tech industrial, and medical sectors. In addition, Niobium has no effective substitutes and…
Author: Brian Colwell
Alternative Investment Explorer
25 Interesting Facts About Manganese
Manganese is an element essential for the sovereignty of modern societies, irreplaceable and consumed in large quantities by all industrialized and developing nations. Manganese has no substitute in its major applications. Of…
20 Interesting Facts About Indium
Rising fossil fuel costs and climate change concerns have produced a global emphasis on renewable energy production and sources. Indium is a mineral critically important in the implementation of large-scale photovoltaic systems….
20 Interesting Facts About Hafnium
The United States is a net importer of hafnium and there is no U.S. government stockpile of this geopolitically-essential commodity. Importantly, world primary hafnium production data and quantitative estimates of hafnium reserves…
20 Interesting Facts About Gallium
Gallium is not produced in the United States and there is no government stockpile. U.S. gallium demand is satisfied by imports, with domestic import sources from 2014 to 2017 as: China, 32%;…
25 Interesting Facts About Fluorspar
Fluorspar is the commercial name for fluorite, which is the only fluorine mineral mined at scale. The largest global production of fluorspar is found in China, followed next by Mexico. The number…
15 Interesting Facts About Cesium
The market for cesium is relatively small and world reserves are massive when compared to world demand. Because cesium supply is vast, and most cesium reserves are located in geopolitically stable countries,…
20 Interesting Facts About Barite
The largest identified global resources of barite are found in the Qinling and Jiangnan regions of southern China and the Cuddapah district of India. In 2018, China was the largest producer of…
20 Interesting Facts About Antimony
Antimony is an important mineral commodity used widely in modern industrialized societies and considered by many nations to be a Critical Resource Mineral because of its applications in aerospace and defense. There…
20 Interesting Facts About Tellurium
Tellurium is critical to efficient, thin-film photovoltaic cells that produce electricity from sunlight. Several materials can replace tellurium in most of its uses, but with losses in efficiency and product characteristics. With…