Our Luni niobium deposit is a once-in-a-generation discovery, and it's located, as you can see right here, in Western Australia. Today I'm looking forward to sharing with you our development ambitions for the project. Luni was discovered in WA1's first-ever drill program, only a few months after our IPO. We were testing discrete geophysical targets in a region that had hardly been touched by exploration. The Luni gravity anomaly looked unique, and that gave us some hope, but we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. The anomaly turned out to be a carbonatite plug, the exact type of geological system that hosts some of the world's best mineral deposits, including Bayan Obo, Palabora, Lynas' Mount Weld, and the three existing niobium operations.
And probably more significant, the carbonatite had undergone weathering processes, which significantly enriched the mineralisation blanket, which starts from as little as 30 meters depth, and we haven't quite found the edges yet. Fast forward only two years, and the Luni carbonatite hosts an initial resource estimate of 200 million tonnes at 1% niobium oxide, and it contains an incredible high-grade subset of over 50 million tonnes at 2.1%. Before Luni, there were only four resources globally greater than 0.8%, and there was one clear standout: the Araxá niobium mine in Brazil. With a head grade of 2.5%, the Araxá niobium mine produces over 80% of global niobium supply and confirms that grade is king.
The size and grade of the Luni deposit speaks for itself, so understanding the niobium market quickly became a focus for us, and we've been building relationships with the people who have shaped the niobium industry over the past few decades. We now understand why the three existing niobium mines are some of the most profitable operations on Earth, and it becomes clear to anyone that takes the time to learn just how rare, strategic, and valuable our Luni niobium discovery is. So, in an effort to make the next 10 minutes a little bit more interesting, we're heading back to the birth of the niobium industry in the 1950s to understand why now, after 70 years, the world needed another niobium discovery like Luni. We've lost the screen. We're back. Between the 1930s and 1950s, there was great fascination with this poorly understood metal called niobium.
However, only a few sporadic tonnes were available. Using niobium as a microalloy in steel making was known to improve strength, toughness, and weldability. However, niobium was doing something else that was far better than any other microalloy was doing, and that was grain refinement. The effects of grain refinement are being shown in the bottom left image there. An addition of a small amount of niobium per ton of steel was causing the iron to solidify in densely packed smaller particles, and this is the reason why niobium is so powerful in steel making. I'll just go back there because in 1959, the first niobium alloyed steel beam was produced in the United Kingdom. Then, in the 1960s, steel making technology started to drastically improve as the world needed better quality steel for its industrial ambitions.
At the same time, new energy transport systems were desperately needed in the form of piping for oil and gas. The benefits of niobium alloyed pipelines were numerous. The pipelines were stronger, more easily weldable, and able to carry more than twice the pressure. The grain refining properties imparted by niobium would slow or arrest cracks. This meant pipeline repairs became possible before deadly explosions occurred. There was a problem. The world didn't have access to niobium. Fortunately, in the 1950s and 1960s, Brazil was transitioning to an industrial powerhouse and opening up its economy to the world. This transition included a countrywide mineral exploration push, which led to the first holes being drilled into a carbonatite intrusion in the state of Minas Gerais in 1953.
Further drilling revealed that the top part of the carbonatite had weathered down, leaving an extremely high-grade blanket of niobium mineralization almost at surface. This was the discovery of an incredibly large and high-grade niobium deposit known as the Araxá niobium mine and is owned by CBMM. While niobium is not rare, finding economic concentrations such as this at Araxá is extremely rare, and in 1961, mining commenced, and this was the birth of the niobium industry. The pit they've been mining from for the past 60 years is shown in the top right image. The timing was perfect, and the Araxá mine provided a reliable worldwide supply of niobium. The result of this niobium supply was the opening up of the market for high-strength, tough, weldable, large-diameter pipelines spanning continents. This saw ferroniobium demand explode, and today, oil and gas pipelines still account for around 20% of demand.
Niobium was quickly adopted by many steelmakers, and between 1976 and 1977, 2 new niobium mines came online, 1 in Canada and a second one in Brazil. Almost 50 years later, this is how global supply remains: just 3 niobium mines supplying the entire world its needs. In the 1980s, advances in steel making technologies saw niobium alloyed steels become critical in many areas of the economy. Niobium enables enhanced formability of steel, and that has seen use in automotives grow to approximately 25% of ferroniobium demand, and this is likely to increase. Because using the Suzuki Swift as an example, the version driving on Australian roads is manufactured to high safety and emission requirements and uses high-strength, low-alloy steels containing niobium.
The Swift is the most popular car in India, selling over 200,000 units last year alone, and unlike those imported to Australia, contains primarily mild steels without niobium. However, India is revising its vehicle safety standards. Today, ferroniobium's number one use is in construction, primarily due to its exceptional market dynamics, price stability, and along with the superior properties it imparts on steel. The early 2000s saw intense growth driven by China and then again in 2018. Today, niobium is absolutely essential for major infrastructure projects, high-rise construction, and bridges. We've clearly seen through history, be it pipelines, vehicles, or construction, that niobium is being used in more and more applications. Steel use is already over 7% of global carbon emissions, and this will only increase. The only replacement for steel is better steel. The multi-trillion dollar steel industry needs to do more with less.
This is known as dematerialization and is an essential part of decarbonization, and niobium has an important role to play. Niobium is also used in a second form, niobium oxide, and first made a name for itself in the 1960s within an alloy called C103, which is 90% niobium. That's how niobium found its way into the history books on the propulsion module nozzles of Apollo 11, and from there into all jet turbines and many important military applications. Today, it is used by SpaceX in their Merlin thrusters and in next-generation hypersonic missiles. Niobium oxide has many other uses due to its conductivity, and while this sector is much smaller than ferroniobium, currently around 15-20,000 tonnes per annum, growth could be tremendous as we continue to transition to a tech economy.
History has shown us that step changes in demand come from new applications, and CBMM is currently placing a large bet on niobium-based battery technology. Niobium is already used as a cathode dopant, replacing the requirement for the often controversial use of cobalt. However, the volumes here are small. On the anode side, primarily replacing graphite, niobium enables the charging and discharging to occur at many times the speed of traditional batteries while maintaining energy density, along withstanding significantly more charge cycles. Niobium-based battery technology felt like it was a long way off until, in June this year, this bus, a partnership between Volkswagen, CBMM, Toshiba, and Sojitz, was unveiled in Araxá. 4 35 kWh batteries provide a combined 60 kilometers of range with a charge time of under 8 minutes.
That's enough range for more than 90% of Brazilian bus routes, and that's a statistic that probably translates favorably to most cities. On top of charge time and energy density, the battery is said to survive up to 20,000 charge cycles, which is crucial in these sorts of applications. Because with a charge cycle at the end of each bus route, let's say 10 a day, current generations of battery technology would need replacement within a year. The same usage of a niobium oxide battery would require replacement every five years, saving significant cost and e-waste. CBMM have just commissioned 4,000 tonnes per annum of battery oxide production capacity, with a forecast to produce over 45,000 tonnes per annum by 2030. That's an almost 40% growth in the overall niobium market in the next six years.
Over the past 30 years, niobium demand has grown by more than 400%, and today is 20% bigger than the NdPr market. 90% of global supply is currently coming from Brazil, with 80% of global supply from CBMM alone, which continuously shoulders the weight of increases in demand. 50% of global niobium demand is from North America, Europe, Japan, and Korea, where it is an extremely highly ranked critical mineral. Until 2011, CBMM was 100% privately owned, and the best solution Japan, Korea, and China could find to make their reliance on CBMM more palatable was for a number of consortiums to purchase a combined 30% of CBMM in 2011 for $4 billion. These are minority non-voting interests, and since 2011, CBMM has almost doubled its annual sales.
What makes this even more incredible is that the state of Minas Gerais owns 50% of the Araxá deposit and receives 25% of CBMM's net profits. As a result, CBMM now counts some of the world's largest steelmakers as their shareholders, including Nippon Steel, Sojitz, Baosteel, CITIC, and POSCO. Today, Araxá is one of the most strategically important mines on Earth and one of the most valuable. Okay, let's get back to Luni. In the last 70 years, no niobium deposit even remotely close to the quality of Araxá had been discovered until we found Luni in 2022. Luni hosts a high-grade, very large and high-grade niobium deposit with similar geological characteristics to Araxá. So now metallurgy is the question we most often receive from investors.
In terms of processing, the three existing niobium mines all follow a similar flow sheet to produce a ferroniobium end product for direct use in the steel making process at mine gate. That enables a diversified and global customer base. Similar to many other commodities, the key technical challenge with a conventional niobium flow sheet is the flotation step because that provides a majority of the concentration of the ore and is where a majority of the recovery losses occur. So this is where we focused our efforts. And in June, we released our first flotation test work results. The results were well beyond our expectations and indicated that Luni has potentially favorable characteristics for a conventional niobium flow sheet. For the rest of this year, our objective is to demonstrate an ability to concentrate a sufficient portion of the Luni deposit to ultimately underpin a development scenario.
Over the coming months, we'll provide regular, meaningful drilling and process test work results as we significantly advance our development ambitions at Luni. Upon discovery of Luni, we immediately committed to all key long lead items. An unconventional approach, perhaps, but the magnitude of the Luni discovery is unconventional in itself. But fortunately, our team has the benefit of having been through all of these pre-development aspects while operating in the West Arunta over the past decade. Our absolute priority on the development front is to de-risk and add value by tackling critical path items. Time is the enemy. Our environmental studies formally commenced at Luni shortly after the discovery, with baseline surveys ongoing. The Ngururrpa and Kiwirrkurra people have backed us in for over a decade to create an opportunity through the wild prospect of having a mine in the West Arunta.
Much of the reason for our staying power that led to the Luni discovery was driven by their commitment to us. Luni is now our chance to deliver on our commitment to them, which is a mining operation on their lands, a dream that we've spoken about with them for so many years. We have an excellent track record on heritage, environment, health, and safety, and having such an experienced team operating in the West Arunta is paramount to us continuing this record. We have a well-established infrastructure at Luni that allows us to operate efficiently, including supporting our regional exploration efforts. And we've continued to grow our high-caliber team, and we are very well positioned to continue to deliver on our exploration, development, and corporate objectives. We'll never take any support for granted, but we feel firmly backed by our shareholders in our development ambitions at Luni
Our market cap of approximately $1 billion undervalues our highly strategic discovery, especially in the context of the 2011 transaction value I highlighted for CBMM, and we will work very hard to close this valuation gap. Compared to exploring Luni last year without a resource or met, it now feels like the creation of value is much more firmly in our control. But now time is the enemy, and there is absolutely no room for complacency. We will not be bogged down in layer upon layer of studies or fixated on refining an Excel model for the largest NPV. However, we will continue to execute our very structured corporate and operational objectives, which will continue to accelerate true value creation. Our board and management is confident about where we should focus our ongoing efforts. Without you even realizing, niobium is all around you.
80% of global supply comes from a single mine in Brazil. The world desperately needs a second, major, reliable supplier. Luni is the best niobium discovery in 70 years. Thank you.