Hafnium may not be a household word, but demand for the element is growing, and Alkane Resources is gearing up to take advantage. 

Alkane’s New South Wales Project Locations

Although hafnium is used in electronics, in alloys for aerospace applications and in control rods for nuclear reactors, the market is quite small. Hafnium is not rare, but it is not found alone in nature. It is almost always found with zirconium and must be separated from it. Only about 70 tons are produced each year, but demand is expected to increase.

Tom Vulcan noted in ETF.com that “while the demand for hafnium from the electronics industry (for chips) appears to be increasing slightly, there is strong demand growth for the metal both in air plasma applications and superalloys. . .it is, however, from the nuclear industry that the greatest growth in demand may arise.” According to the World Nuclear Association, 60 nuclear reactors are under construction worldwide.

Among the companies poised to benefit from great hafnium demand is Alkane Resources Ltd. (ALK:ASX; ANLKY:OTCQX). The Australia-based company is developing the Dubbo Zirconia Project (DZP) in New South Wales. Ian Chalmers, managing director of Alkane, told The Gold Report that about three years ago, Alkane was “approached by an aerospace company to look at hafnium separation from our zirconium stream so that supply was not linked to, and therefore restricted by, the production of nuclear grade zirconium metal in which hafnium is a byproduct. This had an added bonus of producing a very high purity zirconium product, with advanced manufacture applications. There was added complexity in the flow sheet but this was offset but a substantial increase in revenues.”

In its quarterly report, Alkane gave a detailed report on hafnium, noting “hafnium supply remained in deficit during 2016 with demand continuing to exceed supply, which is heavily tied to demand for hafnium free zirconium metal for the nuclear industry. Chinese zirconium companies are starting to produce hafnium free zirconium for their nuclear industry so it is expected to also increase hafnium supply, but the quantities involved are only a few tonnes, and will most likely be consumed within China.”