Analysis of the zirconium resource situation and global layout

Zirconium is one of the new strategic minerals in China.Its external dependency has exceeded 90% for almost ten years.In 2017, the top three providers supplied 653 000 tons zirconium which account for nearly 50% of the total production.China's output is less than 10 000 tons, but the demand is 623 000 tons.In recent three years, China yearly import more than 1 000 000 tons zirconium.With the gradual growth of high-end manufacturing demand for zirconium metal, synthetic zirconia, and nuclear grade zirconium sponge, as well as the applications expansion to intelligent communication and other new industries, the demand for zirconium resources will grow steadily, and the fastest growing will still come from China.In view of China's zirconium resource endowment is poor, the industrial structure is unreasonable, the external dependency is high, the supply is highly concentrated, in order to ensure the safety of China, it is recommended to improve the domestic supply by strengthening the research of processing and metallurgical technology, on the other hand, to participate in the allocation of zirconium resources in worldwide.