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| TABLE 1 | |||||||||||||
| SALIENT NIOBIUM STATISTICS1 | |||||||||||||
| 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | e | ||||||||
| United States: | |||||||||||||
| Government stockpile releases, Nb content2 | metric tons | 223 | 90 | 152 | 156 | -- | |||||||
| Exports, Nb content3, 4 | do. | 170 | 276 | 337 | 561 | 1,100 | |||||||
| Imports for consumption: | |||||||||||||
| Mineral concentrates, Nb content4 | do. | 181 | 167 | 142 | 120 | 109 | |||||||
| Niobium metal, gross weight5 | do. | 743 | 940 | 1,380 | 1,450 | 864 | |||||||
| Niobium oxide, Nb contente | do. | 585 | 633 | 661 | 760 | 744 | |||||||
| Ferroniobium, Nb contente | do. | 4,080 | 5,170 | 5,430 | 8,150 | 8,400 | |||||||
| Consumption, Nb content: | |||||||||||||
| Raw materials | do. | W | W | W | W | W | |||||||
| Ferroniobium and nickel niobiumr,e | do. | 3,670 | 4,220 | 4,600 | 5,050 | 6,510 | |||||||
| Apparent | do. | 5,640 | 6,730 | r | 7,430 | 10,100 | 9,020 | ||||||
| Prices:6 | |||||||||||||
| Ferroniobium7 (Nb content)�� | dollars per kilogram | 14.5 | 14.5 | 14.5 | -- | -- | |||||||
| Value:8 | |||||||||||||
| Niobium ore and concentrate (gross weight) | dollars per metric ton | 9.75 | 6.96 | 9.70 | 13.71 | 22.55 | |||||||
| Niobium oxide (gross weight) | do. | 14.55 | 15.30 | 14.12 | 14.07 | 17.64 | |||||||
| Ferroniobium (gross weight) | do. | 8.74 | 8.72 | 8.66 | 9.13 | 13.88 | |||||||
| World, production of niobium-tantalum concentrates, Nb contentr | metric tons | 40,800 | 41,900 | 60,300 | 51,200 | 60,400 | |||||||
| do. Ditto. eEstimated. rRevised. W Withheld to avoid disclosing company proprietary data. -- Zero. | |||||||||||||
| 1Data are rounded to no more than three significant digits, except prices. | |||||||||||||
| 2Release is the decrease of uncommitted inventory relative to the previous calendar year.�� | |||||||||||||
| 3Includes natural and synthetic niobium ore and concentrates; niobium oxide; niobium ferroalloy; and u | |||||||||||||
| 4To estimate Nb content, it was assumed that natural tantalum and synthetic tantalum-niobium ore and concentrates are 16% Nb2O5; niobium ore� | |||||||||||||
| concentrates is 30% Nb2O5; and Nb2O5 is 69.9% Nb. | |||||||||||||
| 5Includes niobium and articles made of niobium. | |||||||||||||
| 6The published price for columbite ore was discontinued in 2001 at a range of $5.50 to $7.00 per pound of Nb2O5 content. The published price of Brazilian | |||||||||||||
| �pyrochlore was discontinued in 1981; Canadian, 1989.� Price is time-weighted average as reported in trade journals.�� | |||||||||||||
| 7Standard (steelmaking) grade. American Metal Market discontinued reporting the price of vacuum grade ferroniobium in 2002 and standard grade in 2005.�� | |||||||||||||
| 8Value is mass-weighted average value of U.S. trade (such as, imported plus exported material).�� | |||||||||||||
Source: United States Geological Survey Mineral Resources Program