On August 26, Chairman of the Association of Producers and Consumers of Rare and Rare Earth Metals Ruslan Dimukhamedov took part in the conference "Diversification and cooperation of defense industry enterprises in the interests of the mineral resource complex", held as part of the business program of the International Military-Technical Forum "Army-2021" - its organizers were NP "Miners of Russia".
In his report on the production, processing, and use of scandium, a rare metal currently used mainly in the defense industry, Ruslan Dimukhamedov touched upon the existing problems of competition between Russian scandium products and imported raw materials.
“The extraction of scandium in Russia as the first redistribution on a pilot scale has been established, but there is no sale due to the fact that the market is occupied by cheaper products from China. My colleagues and I still have a lot to do to push imported products on the Russian market.”
Scandium is more expensive than gold, and the use of its alloys is necessary where strength is more important than price. So, for example, in aviation, scandium improves the strength characteristics of alloys, which leads to
to a significant increase in the cost of the product.
Promising areas in Russia for the use of scandium in the predicted future may be the manufacture of high-speed small-sized vessels of all types, powders for use in 3D printing, use in civil aircraft and helicopter manufacturing, high-speed rail transport, and in the production of green energy products (SOFC).
Expanding the use of scandium in new civilian industries will increase production volumes and thereby reduce the cost of its production.