70 years of Araxá's niobium discovery

The month of March 2023 celebrates one of the greatest achievements of brazilian Geosciences: 70 years ago, Niobium (metallic chemical element, symbol Nb) was discovered in the city of Araxá (Minas Gerais state), by the geoscientist and professor Djalma Guimarães.

Through this story, which took place in 1953, worthy of a best-selling investigation, with characters and narratives involved in the search for radioactive minerals during the post-war period, MM Gerdau presents unpublished details about this discovery. 

The story of pyrochlore and the discovery of the largest deposit, economically viable, of this mineral that contains enormous amounts of niobium.

Periodic Table, of the permanent exhibition, on the third floor (Metal Floor) of MM Gerdau - Museum of Mines and Metal. Niobium (Nb) the element of atomic number (Z) = 41.

Most of the chemical elements in the Periodic Table are unfamiliar or we do not know the applications of most of them. However, niobium, which is scarce in other countries and has large deposits in Minas Gerais, Brazil, could be the key to a large number of new technologies.

This deposit of niobium was discovered in 1953 after a meticulous investigation that divided teams in the field and in the laboratory, working together, and generated enormous national attention.

Since its discovery, CBMM and Codemig have explored the pyrochlore deposit, whose economic advantage is the lack of Ta, which makes it difficult to separate Nb and increases the final product value.