Rhenium

Key Applications:

• high-temperature superalloys in aircraft engines
• Rhenium-SCT® (Skin Cancer Therapy)
• heating elements, electrical contacts, electrodes, electromagnets, vacuum and X-ray tubes, flashbulbs, metallic coatings, and rocket engine components.

Key Producers:

• KGHM Polska Miedz SA
• American Elements
• Freeport-McMoRan Inc.
• Avon Metals Ltd.
• H. Cross Co.
• Heraeus Holding GmbH
• MOLYMET SA
• Rhenium Alloys Inc.
• Ultramet
• Umicore

Key End Marketst:

The Rhenium market is driven by its uses in aerospace superalloys, catalysts and healthcare. Aerospace dominates, as modern jet engines usually rely on Rhenium to improve the creep resistance of superalloys, resulting in more durable components able to withstand higher temperatures. In turn, this leads to fuel efficiency.

The global healthcare industry has been expanding Rhenium usage in various medical devices. The rising elderly population across the globe, high prevalence of chronic diseases, and advances in innovative digital technologies, have led to a range of applications, given Rhenium’s unique properties. Rhenium-188 is a high energy-emitting radioisotope obtained from the tungsten-188 generator. It is applied in a wide range of therapeutic applications such as nuclear medicine, preparation of radiopharmaceuticals for radionuclide therapy, oncology, interventional radiology, and cardiology. Diseases such as bone metastasis, rheumatoid arthritis, and primary cancers use rhenium-188 for diagnosis and treatment. Rhenium-188 is used to produce phosphonates, antibodies, peptides, and lipiodol. The high energy generated from the β-emission of rhenium-188 is effective in treating tumors. It is used in the new class of implant material and Rhenium-SCT® (Skin Cancer Therapy) devices, a non-invasive, painless therapy for the treatment of NMSCs (non-melanoma skin cancers).

Key End Marketst:

Annual world mine production of Rhenium is around 50 tonnes, based on the US Geological Survey. Nearly all primary (ie non-recycled) Rhenium production is a byproduct of copper mining, and about 80% is recovered from the flue dust produced during the roasting of molybdenite concentrates from porphyry copper deposits. Molybdenite in porphyry copper deposits can contain from hundreds to several thousand grams of Rhenium per metric ton, although grades of these deposits range from less than 0.1g/tonne to about 0.6g/tonne. Continental-arc porphyry copper-molybdenum-gold deposits supply most of the world’s Rhenium production and have large inferred Rhenium resources. Porphyry copper mines in Chile account for about 55% of the world’s mine production of Rhenium. Rhenium is also recovered from porphyry copper deposits in the United States, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Peru, Russia, and Uzbekistan. Sediment-hosted strata-bound copper deposits in Kazakhstan (of the sandstone type) and in Poland (of the reduced-facies, or Kupferschiefer, type) account for most other Rhenium produced by mining. These types of deposits also have large amounts of identified Rhenium resources.

According to the USGS, in 2020, Rhenium production in the United States decreased by 6% compared to 2019. A Rhenium recovery facility in Utah was closed in 2019; however, the company announced the possibility of reopening the facility in the near future. During 2020, the United States continued to rely on imports (mainly from Canada, Chile, Germany, and Kazakhstan) for much of its supply of Rhenium. Imports of ammonium perrhenate (APR), which contains Rhenium, decreased by 16% in 2020 compared with 2019, while imports of rhenium metal decreased by 57%, partly due to lower aerospace consumption due to reduced plane manufacturing during the pandemic. Finally, mine production of Rhenium-containing feedstocks was also lower in 2020.