These perfect spheres are coated with niobium, a metal which, when kept close to absolute zero, is a superconductor.

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Doping (adding the element niobium to the chemistry), as well as reducing the size of the material to nanoscale, makes it more conductive.

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Rather than being magnesium based it seems to be zirconium with copper, nickel and niobium (that latter in only one formulation I think).

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The EU sees "especially strong potential" in Greenland's deposits of niobium, platinum, rare earths and tantalum, among the elements on an EU "critical raw materials" list.

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If we did start to use the thorium nuclear cycle in reactors one group of beneficiaries would be those who use tantalum, niobium, rare earths and so on.

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Helium-cooled superconducting coils, typically made of an alloy of niobium and titanium encased in copper cladding, create magnetic fields ten times stronger than similar-size permanent magnets can muster.

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They are toughened with diamond-like carbon from the semiconductor industry and this is bonded on to the steel with niobium, a rare tin alloy normally used in superconducting magnets.

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Now most use niobium to plate those chips.

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Peak neodymium is the latest threat to green energy, while doubt emerges over the security of many other element groups including the rare earths, the platinum group metals, and elements such as antimony, beryllium, gallium, germanium, graphite, indium, magnesium, niobium, tantalum and tungsten.

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