About
Minor Metals
Traditionally, Minor metals are those metals not traded on formal exchanges, although cobalt and molybdenum are now traded on the London Metal Exchange along with base metals. Minor metals very often have lower volume, but often higher value, critical to many industrial sectors.
According to the Minor Metals Trade Association, there are 49 minor metals which include: antimony (Sb), arsenic (As), beryllium (Be), bismuth (Bi), cadmium (Cd), cerium (Ce), chromium (Cr), cobalt (Co), gadolinium (Gd), gallium (Ga), germanium (Ge), hafnium (Hf), indium (In), lithium (Li), magnesium (Mg), manganese (Mn), mercury (Hg), molybdenum (Mo), neodymium (Nd), niobium (Nb), iridium (Ir), osmium (Os), praseodymium (Pr), rhenium (Re), rhodium (Rh), ruthenium (Ru), samarium (Sm), selenium (Se), silicon (Si), tantalum (Ta), tellurium (Te), titanium (Ti), tungsten (W), vanadium (V), and zirconium (Zr). For an exhaustive list, please refer to “Minor Metals” defined on CHIVINE.
Their applications cover industries from aerospace, automotive, medical, optics, consumer electronics, catalysts, to batteries and renewable energy technologies. They can be found from capacitors for consumer electronics (tantalum) and metallic cathodes for rechargeable batteries (cobalt) to photovoltaic solar cells (silicon) and semiconductor materials (gallium and indium). According to the primary end-uses, minor metals can be roughly classified into four groups: Electronic metals (e.g. Ga and Ge); Power metals (e.g. Mo and Zr); Structural metals (e.g. Cr and V); Performance metals (e.g. Ti and Re).
Minor metals are often defined by governments as ‘critical’ or ‘strategic’ on the basis of their exceptional characteristics. In addition, minor metals often as alloying elements give steel, nickel, aluminum and other base metals their desired/enhanced mechanical properties, deformability, corrosion resistance and other essential performance characteristics.
Since the start of the twenty-first century, Global metal markets have changed considerably, China is the most influential driver of this change. China has become the dominant location for global metal production and consumption, and China is also the leading primary producer of minor metals. Based in Canada, but with tight collaboration/partnership with a number of qualified producers/processors from Greater China, LGL Metal is able to make quality deliveries in an efficient and timely-manner to meet the needs of our customers worldwide.