NiobiumX Mining has set out its plan to explore and drill a second niobium system in the Saint-Honoré carbonatite district of Québec. The Shipshaw property lies about two kilometres from the Niobec mine, North America’s only niobium producer, in operation since 1976. The metal matters for fusion too: niobium-tin and niobium-titanium superconductors underpin magnet coils, and ITER’s toroidal field coils alone required about 420 tonnes of niobium-tin wire.
The project advances in four stages, each designed to narrow the search area before more money is spent. It begins by consolidating historical drilling, assay, mapping and geophysical data into a single verified database. Next comes a high-resolution airborne magnetic and radiometric survey over all 48 claims, covering roughly 2,686 hectares. The new data are then cross-referenced with the historical material using machine learning and 3D magnetic inversion to rank targets. Finally, diamond drilling will test the highest-ranked targets. The company says it will report to the market at each step.
The geological setting is favourable. The Shipshaw carbonatite is one of five in the Waswanipi-Saguenay zone selected by Géologie Québec for metallogenic bulletin BM 2024-02, all showing a negative magnetic anomaly. A 2010 airborne survey identified a magnetic low. Historical drilling in 2010 and 2011 intersected the carbonatite complex in all 23 holes, totalling about 5,850 metres. The company notes, however, that these data have not been verified by its qualified technical reviewer. Radiometry has a local precedent: Niobec was discovered in 1967 through a radiometric survey during uranium exploration.
Global supply is highly concentrated. According to USGS data cited by the financial press, worldwide niobium mine production in 2025 was about 112,000 tonnes, with Brazil at roughly 104,000 and Canada at about 6,000. Brazil therefore accounts for around 93% of world supply, while the United States has had no niobium mines since 1959. NiobiumX, formerly Arctic Fox Lithium, changed its ticker to NIOX on 17 July 2026, after leaving its James Bay lithium assets to focus on Québec.
For now there is no resource or reserve estimate at Shipshaw, and mineralisation at neighbouring Niobec guarantees nothing about the property. The plan remains an exploration campaign. If the surveys point to a mineralised body, the Saguenay region could offer a second North American source of a metal that feeds fusion and MRI magnets, to the benefit of supply chains for future magnetic-confinement reactors.
