The future is bright for niobium. It used to be regarded as the poor man’s tantalum. Tantalum’s high cost often meant that desperate metallurgists would stare at the Periodic Table and eye its column-mate niobium. And, indeed, it’s often been called to fill in the star’s shoes. Just like tantalum, niobium is a metal having the desirable qualities of being resistant to corrosion while at the same time having a high melting point and with a bonus of desirable electrical properties.

Times have changed however and new applications have been knocking on the door. Researchers are employing greater quantities of niobium for advanced batteries and CERN recently disclosed that a niobium-tin alloy is a leading prospect for the making of a new class of superconducting magnets to be used in forthcoming particle accelerators.

Meanwhile entrepreneurs continue turning this promising resource into colored trinkets to be sold on Etsy… and stuff it into glass vials on Luciteria.