Not Your Grandfathers Mining Industry, Nova Scotia, Canada

FAST FACTS!

• Titanium is strong as steel, but 45% lighter.
• Found in a wide variety of minerals, titanium is also found in every living thing.
• Titanium is very common in the Earth’s crust, being the 9th most common element. It is also common in meteorites, the Sun and Moon. 
• The former Soviet Union built several of their submarine hulls out of titanium starting in the 1980s, making very strong - and very expensive! - submarines.
• Titanium is used in fireworks, due to the colors it produces when it is burned.
• Martin Heinrich Klaproth, the Austrian chemist who confirmed the discovery of the metal, named it after the Titans, the first sons of the earth in Greek mythology. Their mother was Gaea (Earth). They were a race of giant deities who ultimately were overthrown by the Olympian gods. They are associated with great size and strength--hence the word "titanic." The name is appropriate for an extremely strong element taken from the earth.

Titanium, like a number of other metals, is used to add colour to fireworks. (https://community.sony.co.uk/t5/discover-sony/titanium-fireworks-putting...)

HOW TITANIUM IS FORMED

Titanium is forged in the depths of supernovas, or collapsing stars. A 2012 study of a particular dying star, Supernova 1987A, found that a single supernova can create 100 Earths worth of titanium-44, a radioactive isotope of titanium, by mass.

Titanium is very common in the Earth’s crust, being the 9th most common element. It is almost always present in igneous rocks and the sediments derived from them.  It is also common in meteorites, the Sun and Moon. 

USES OF TITANIUM

Titanium is used in bikes and many other products you use.

Titanium is as strong as steel but much less dense. It is therefore important as an alloying agent with many metals including aluminium, molybdenum and iron. These alloys are mainly used in aircraft, spacecraft and missiles because of their low density and ability to withstand extremes of temperature. They are also used in golf clubs, laptops, bicycles and crutches.

Power plant condensers use titanium pipes because of their resistance to corrosion. Because titanium has excellent resistance to corrosion in seawater, it is used in desalination plants and to protect the hulls of ships, submarines and other structures exposed to seawater.

Titanium metal connects well with bone, so it has surgical applications such as in joint replacements (especially hip joints) and tooth implants.

The largest use of titanium is in the form of titanium oxide. It is extensively used as a pigment in house paint, artists’ paint, plastics, enamels and paper. It is a bright white pigment with excellent covering power. It is also a good reflector of infrared radiation and so is used in solar observatories where heat causes poor visibility.

Titanium oxide is used in sunscreens because it prevents UV light from reaching the skin. Nanoparticles of titanium oxide appear invisible when applied to the skin.

Titanium is used in fireworks, due to the colors it produces when it is burned. Titanium is the only element that will burn in a pure nitrogen atmosphere.

TITANIUM IN NOVA SCOTIA

For millions of years the highest tides in the world have been depositing black titanium sand on the floor of the Shubenacadie River.

The deposit was first discovered in 1997 and it appears that nature has essentially crushed, concentrated and deposited this massive resource and left it to wait for extraction and processing.

TITANIUM AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Titanium is 100% recyclable, and because it is so light and strong, it is often used in green technologies like hybrid and electric vehicles and wind turbines.

Using titanium in vehicles also makes them more fuel efficient by reducing their weight.