Terbium tipped to follow gallium’s boom as demand surges and China cuts exports

Gallium has become the darling of markets and Australian miners after a dramatic surge in demand and prices following China’s decision to halt its exports of the rare earth element (REE).

Now analysts are suggesting terbium could follow a similar path after China, the world’s largest producer, removed it from its REE export list as well.

Making up less than 1% of the total rare earth content in most deposits, terbium is one of the hardest elements to source.

US defence demand

Like gallium, terbium is heavily sought by the United States for its use in modern technologies and the defence sector.

According to the US Department of Defense, terbium adds temperature resiliency to the neodymium iron boron magnets used in multiple key defence systems including aircraft, submarines and missiles.

Various other technologies also use terbium, including as a green phosphor in display screens, a component in magnetostrictive alloys and a dopant in solid-state devices.

Australian opportunity

Alongside China, Australia, the US, India, Sri Lanka and Brazil currently mine terbium, with analysts estimating total reserves to be around 300,000 tonnes.

Australia is currently estimated to contain 4% of the world’s REE reserves and has developed a growing interest in terbium to the point where it is now considered a pioneer in new terbium extraction methods.

If those developments can be scaled up, analysts are expecting Australian technology to reduce costs and speed up the availability of terbium.

Market Research Intellect valued the terbium market at around $7.8 billion in 2023 and is forecasting it to grow at an 11.15% compound annual rate to approximately $27.6b by 2031.

Local terbium hunters

Northern Minerals (ASX: NTU) is focused on becoming a producer of terbium and dysprosium at its Browns Range project in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.

Australian Strategic Materials (ASX: ASM) is looking to produce a suite of separated rare earth oxides with up to 15 rare earth elements, including terbium, at its “mines-to-metals” Dubbo project in New South Wales.

Victory Metals (ASX: VTM) is developing a clay-hosted REE deposit that includes terbium in an emerging resource situated in the Cue region of WA.