Recently, a news about rare metals has attracted widespread attention in the mainland mining field. According to the latest data released by China Mining, the mainland's rhenium resource reserves have reached 787 tons, ranking second in the world, enough to be used for more than 300 years. This breakthrough achievement undoubtedly provides a strong guarantee for the development of the mainland in the field of high-precision, and adds a strong bargaining chip in the competition of global extremely rare metal resources, and also makes the mainland have a more calm confidence in the face of the bottleneck problem in the international mining field.
So, what exactly is rhenium, and why does the announcement of its reserves attract so much attention?
As a lower element in the periodic table, rhenium is extremely rare in nature. Generally speaking, in the earth's crust per unit volume, the reserves of rhenium are only 0.0001 parts per million, and its rarity can be seen. In addition to its own very scarce reserves, some of the natural properties of rhenium are also extremely good, in short, it is a rare and magical special metal.
Its stability, heat resistance and chemical inertness make it an irreplaceable role in the aerospace sector. As a silvery-white transition metal, rhenium has extremely high wear resistance and corrosion resistance, with a melting point of up to 3186 °C, far more than twice that of steel, and a boiling point of 5627 °C. It is this resistance to ultra-high temperatures that makes rhenium play a vital role in aero engines and industrial gas turbines.
In addition to the properties mentioned above, rhenium also has an extremely high hardness. The Rhenium material prepared by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) can reach 608HV in cross-section, 686HV in longitudinal section, and 647HV in comprehensive hardness. Compared with our common 304 stainless steel, the Vickers hardness of the latter is usually in the range of 190HV to 250HV, and the hardness of rhenium is more than 2.5 times that of 304 stainless steel.
It is precisely because rhenium has a high melting point, boiling point, hardness and excellent high temperature resistance, corrosion resistance and other characteristics that it has an extremely important application in the aerospace industry. For example, it is used in the manufacture of turbine blades, turbine disks and combustion chambers for aero engines, aircraft structural parts and propulsion systems for spacecraft; and circuit boards for aerospace vehicles that require resistance to high-temperature environments.
It can be said that rhenium is an indispensable metal material for the manufacture of high-thrust engines, and is widely used in optical fibers, high-temperature alloys, catalysts, semiconductors, special glass, oil extraction, cutting-edge medical equipment and other fields. Due to its unique physical and chemical properties, rhenium is known as the "vitamin of modern industry".
However, as a rare strategic resource with extremely high value, rhenium is extremely unevenly distributed around the world. For a long time, the mainland has relied on imports in the field of rhenium materials and faces certain supply risks. Because of this, some countries have monopolized global rhenium resources for a long time by virtue of their political and economic advantages, in an attempt to restrict the development of China's aerospace and other high-end industries.
Previously, the International Geological Agency had issued a report that as of 2018, the world's proven reserves of rhenium were about 2,500 tons, and the total resources were about 10,000 or 11,000 tons. However, since 2021, with more rhenium discoveries, rhenium resources have been found in 618 deposits globally.
According to the latest paper published by the Western scientific journal Sciencedirect, "Rhenium Mineral Resources: Global Assessment", the global rhenium reserves are between 55,000 tons and 140,000 tons, and the best valuation is 83,000 tons, which is 8 times the previous global rhenium resource estimate. Currently, the global demand for rhenium is about 50 tons per year, and even at the lowest estimates, the reserves of rhenium could meet the world's demand for centuries.
Coincidentally, on April 9, 2024, the official website of China Mining also released the "Characteristics and Status of Rhenium Exploration, Development and Utilization Resources in Mainland China", which shows that as of 2021, China has confirmed a total of 787.41 tons of rhenium resource reserves. According to the current annual rhenium consumption of 2.5 tons in the mainland, it can be mined and used for more than 300 years. Importantly, the actual reserves of the continent are much more than that.
In recent years, in order to break the monopoly in the international mining field, mainland geological exploration workers have actively carried out resource and geological exploration, and mining enterprises have also continuously improved the level of development and utilization of rhenium resources. After years of hard work, a major breakthrough has finally been made in the exploration and development of rhenium resources in the mainland.
A new type of ionic adsorption rhenium deposit was discovered for the first time in the Wucaiping area of Guizhou Province, while another type of rhenium deposit was discovered in the Qianjiadian area on the southwestern edge of the Songliao Basin in Northeast China. In addition, porphyry rhenium deposits have also been discovered in Henan, Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Tibet, Yunnan, Xinjiang, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Zhejiang, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Fujian, Guangdong, Shaanxi, Anhui, Hubei and other provinces across the country. Although the amount of rhenium resources found in various places is not large, China has a large land and abundant resources, and the small accumulation of rhenium ore resources across the country has formed a considerable total amount of rhenium ore resources.
The sufficient reserve of rhenium resources is of great significance for the development of high-tech fields such as aerospace and high-end manufacturing in mainland China. With the increase of rhenium reserves in the mainland, it will help to reduce the import dependence on these key materials and improve the mainland's independent and controllable ability in high-precision fields.
At present, the global production and supply of rhenium is mainly concentrated in Chile, the United States, Poland and other countries. According to the "2021 Global Rhenium Production" report released by the professional data Statista platform, there are 8 countries in the world with higher rhenium production, of which Chile ranks first with 18.88 tons, followed by the United States with 9.29 tons, Poland with 6.4 tons, and China ranks fourth with 2.5 tons.
Other higher producers included 2.37 tonnes from Uzbekistan, 2 tonnes from Russia, 1 tonne from Kazakhstan and 0.17 tonnes from Armenia. In the future, with the continuous increase in the development and application of rhenium resources in the mainland, it is expected that the annual output of rhenium may increase to 3 to 5 tons.