Beryllium is a steel-gray metallic element, known for being lightweight yet remarkably strong. It possesses an exceptional stiffness-to-weight ratio, a high melting point, and excellent thermal conductivity. These properties make it valuable for advanced applications in aerospace, defense, electronics, and medicine.
Key Global Mining Locations
The United States is the primary global source of mined beryllium. Production is concentrated at Spor Mountain in Juab County, Utah, which hosts the world’s largest known bertrandite deposit. This has made the U.S. a leading producer for decades.
China is another significant contributor to the global beryllium supply, with major production bases in provinces like Xinjiang, Hunan, and Guangzhou. Its output has increased notably in recent years. Beyond these two nations, industrial beryl mining occurs in Brazil, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nigeria, Portugal, and Rwanda. Kazakhstan processes beryllium ores, and Russia plans to restart bertrandite mining at its Ermakovskoe deposit.
Extraction Methods and Geological Sources
Beryllium is primarily obtained from two key minerals: bertrandite and beryl. Bertrandite serves as the main ore in the United States, found within volcanic tuff deposits derived from granite. Bertrandite deposits are commonly extracted using open-pit mining techniques.
Beryl is the principal beryllium mineral mined in most other parts of the world. Beryl deposits are primarily associated with pegmatites. While some beryl is recovered through hand-sorting of large crystals, flotation methods are also employed for lower-grade ores to separate the mineral from surrounding gangue. Bertrandite ore typically contains less than 0.5 weight percent beryllium, whereas beryl ore usually ranges from 2 to 4 weight percent.
From Ore to Usable Material
Once extracted, beryllium ore undergoes processing to transform it into a usable material. This involves crushing and grinding the ore into finer particles. For bertrandite ore, the crushed material is then leached with sulfuric acid to dissolve the beryllium content.
Processing beryl ore follows a different path, involving melting the ore at high temperatures. The molten material is rapidly quenched in water, forming a glassy substance called frit, which is then reheated and leached with sulfuric acid. Impurities are removed from the beryllium-rich solution. This refined solution yields pure beryllium hydroxide.
Beryllium hydroxide serves as the foundational material for producing various beryllium products, including pure beryllium metal, alloys, and ceramics. To produce metallic beryllium, the hydroxide can be converted into beryllium fluoride and reduced using magnesium, or transformed into beryllium chloride for electrolytic refinement.