No more Achilles’ heel in hypersonics race? China zirconium find boosts reserve five-fold

Chinese geologists discover massive supply of the rare metal mineral embedded in sandstone along ancient river and lake systems

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China’s hypersonic aircraft MD-19 is launched from near space. As the US, Russia and China race to deploy operational hypersonic glide vehicles and cruise missiles, control over zirconium supply chains has become as critical as access to rare earth elements. Photo: Chinese Academy of Sciences

Published: 6:00pm, 27 Jul 2025

In a discovery that could reshape the global balance of strategic mineral supply, Chinese geologists have uncovered a huge zirconium deposit in the Kubai Basin, on the northern fringe of the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang – a deadly stretch of arid land that may now become a new driver of China’s hi-tech military ambitions.

The newly identified deposit, embedded within Cenozoic continental sedimentary layers dating to the Paleogene and Neogene periods, represents the first super-large zirconium resource ever discovered in a terrestrial, non-marine basin in China.

Unlike traditional zirconium sources – typically found along coastlines or within hard-rock igneous systems – this deposit formed through ancient river and lake systems that transported zircon grains over hundreds of kilometres from alkaline rock sources in the region, depositing them in deltaic and lacustrine environments.

The ore, hosted in loose to semi-consolidated gravelly medium-coarse sandstones, contains an estimated 2 million tonnes of zirconium dioxide, according to preliminary assessments.

It is four times the total reserve of China at present.

Zirconium alloys, prized for their exceptional resistance to heat, corrosion and neutron absorption, are fundamental in manufacturing scramjet combustion chambers, thermal protection tiles, nose cones and guidance components.

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No more Achilles’ heel in hypersonics race? China zirconium find boosts reserve five-fold

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Chinese geologists discover massive supply of the rare metal mineral embedded in sandstone along ancient river and lake systems

Chinese geologists discover massive supply of the rare metal mineral embedded in sandstone along ancient river and lake systems