"Metals of the Future" is a subjective grouping of relatively little known and seemingly exotic commodities that have recently caught the imagination of the media and the public. They include the chemically related Rare Earths and a variety of metals which are judged to be in their infancy in terms of demand and utilization because they are essential to components of high tech innovations in electronics, green energy, transportation and communication.
From an exploration and discovery standpoint a number of them occur in environments that have not been subjected to the rigorous scrutinty that base and precious metals search has generated. Consequently, our company has been able to secure a number of attractive prospects simply by being aware of where these opportunities might occur and pursuing them either by acquisition of mineral rights directly, or making relatively low cost deals to acquire them.

Capsule descriptions of their nature and application follow.

Beryllium - Be - Atomic Number 4
Beryllium is best known for its gemstones emerald, aquamarine, and chrysoberyl.  The main ore minerals of beryllium are beryl and bertrandite.  Beryl is mined by hand cobbing in several countries around the world and is used in part as a supplement to bertrandite mineral processing.
APPLICATIONS OF BERYLLIUM
Beryllium is mostly used in three broad categories:  as a metal, in alloys with copper, aluminum, and even gold, and in beryllia ceramics.
Metal: Because of its lightness and strength, beryllium metal is used in satellites and aerospace structural components.  Beryllium is transparent to x-rays and accordingly is used in x-ray tube windows.  Its nuclear properties find use in nuclear and fusion power generation in shielding and as a neutron moderator, and in particle accelerators.  Its antimagnetic properties see its use in inertial navigation systems and its anti-sparking properties lend to its use in handling of explosives.  It is also used in radio speakers, micro-wave ovens, computer chip layout, sub-sea petroleum gathering systems, and in cosmogenic age dating.  It has even been used in bicycle frames and golf club shafts.
Alloys: The largest end-use of beryllium is in alloy form with copper and aluminum where it imparts a fatigue, or failure resistance to spring and stressed functions.  Accordingly it is found in aerospace applications, skidoos, motorcycles, ATV and automobile suspension, electronics, circuit boards, electrical and electronic connectors, electromechanical devices, spring functions such as keyboards and computer printers, non-sparking explosive handling tools, undersea oil wellheads and gathering systems, electric motors, generators, alternators, fibre optics and lasers, air-bag connectors and contacts, thermostats and eyeglass frames.  In critical functions such as electrical and electronic connectors in satellites where repairs cannot be affected, beryllium is sometimes alloyed with gold.
Ceramics: Beryllium ceramics (or 'beryllia') is used for computer chip heat sinks, radio tubes, microwave guides, and electrical insulators.
Other:  The unique properties of beryllium also lend to its use in medical diagnostic equipment and heart implants.

Niobium - Nb - Atomic Number 41
Niobium is primarily obtained from the mineral pyrochlore, most of which is mined and processed in Brazil and to a lesser extent in Canada.  Other mineral sources include the tantalum bearing mineral columbo-tantalite, or what is called "Coltan" in Africa.  Most of the pyrochlore that is mined is converted to a niobium-iron alloy known as ferro-niobium and serves as the start point for most of its applications.
APPLICATIONS OF NIOBIUM
Steel production: Niobium is an effective microalloying element for steel that improves the grain refining and precipitation hardening of the steel, thereby increasing the toughness, strength, formability, and weldability.  Microalloyed stainless steels have a niobium content of less than 0.1%. These high strength low alloy (HSLA) steels are widely used as structural components in modern automobiles and pipeline construction.
Superalloys: Niobium is used in nickel-, cobalt-, and iron-based superalloys for applications in jet engine components, gas turbines, rocket subassemblies, and heat resisting and combustion equipment. These alloys contain up to 6.5% niobium; an example of which, Inconel 718, is a nickel-based niobium-containing superalloy used in advanced air frame systems.  Another alloy, C103, is comprised of 89% niobium, 10% hafnium and 1% titanium and is used for liquid rocket thruster nozzles.
Electronics:  Niobium has a high dielectric constant and is thus able to hold and store electrical charges.  The most effective capacitors are those made of tantalum, but high tantalum prices have lead to the substitution of niobium in many non-critical applications where ambient temperatures are low.
Superconducting Magnets: Niobium becomes a superconductor at very low, or cryogenic temperatures. Niobium also has the largest magnetic penetration depth of any element. As such, niobium-tin and niobium-titanium alloys are used as wires for superconducting magnets capable of producing exceedingly strong magnetic fields. These superconducting magnets are used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and nuclear magnetic resonance instruments. They are also used in the construction of particle accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider which uses 600 metric tons of superconducting wire strands. The International Thermonuclear (Fusion) Experimental Reactor is estimated to use 600 metric tonnes of Nb3Sn strands and 250 metric tonnes of NbTi strands.
Numismatics:  Niobium is used as a precious metal in commemorative coins and jewellery, often with silver or gold. The colour in these coins, ranges from blue, green, brown, purple, violet, or yellow, and is created by diffraction of light through a thin oxide layer produced by anodizing of the niobium surface.
Other Uses: Niobium is used in medical devices such as pacemakers as niobium is physiologically inert and thus hypoallergenic. Niobium-doped glass has a high refractive index; a property of use to the optical industry in making thinner corrective glasses.  It is also used in nuclear components as it has low capture cross-section for thermal neutrons. Niobium is also used in arc welding rods for some stabilized grades of stainless steel and in the arc-tube seals of high pressure sodium vapor lamps.

Cesium -- Cs - Atomic Number 55
Cesium is a very rare element mostly found in unusual, highly evolved granitic pegmatite rocks in form of the mineral pollucite.
APPLICATIONS OF CESIUM
Cesium has only been commercially available for about forty years as a by-product of lithium chemical production. Applications for cesium include:
Biomedical Uses:  The best-known use of cesium is in liquids for the separation of DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid.  Cesium compounds find further use as catalysts in biomedical and chemical research, and for tagging or tracing compounds.  Cesium chloride has recently been found to be effective in treating all forms of cancer and shows great potential as an important new cure for this commonly fatal disease.  Radioactive isotopes of cesium have long been used for radiation treatment of, for example, prostate cancer.
Heavy Media:  Cesium formate, a specialty drilling fluid developed by Cabot Corporation, is used in drilling deep, high pressure, high-temperature oil wells. This application represents the largest current industrial application for cesium.  This product is rented, recovered for purification and loss make-up, and is then recycled. 
Electronics:  The low ionization potential of cesium is exploited in photoelectric cell design and in photo-emissive and scintillation devices in electronics. A cesium vapour-laser computer has been experimentally demonstrated and cesium is commonly used in magnetometers for submarine detection and mineral exploration geophysics. It is presently used in infrared optics and is finding growing use in solar cell technology.
Chronometry: An atomic clock, a 1999 design accurate to one second in 2 million years, functions on the basis of cesium's constant atomic resonance. It is used for closer spacing of data packages that multiplies capacities of fibre optic cable systems.
Magneto-hydrodynamics and Ion Propulsion Motors:  Cesium ionizes readily and can be used as a plasma for electricity generation and for ion propulsion motors in deep space probes.

Zirconium -- Zr - Atomic number 40
Zirconium is never found as a native metal, but is instead obtained mainly from the minerals  zircon  and baddeleyite.
APPLICATIONS OF ZIRCONIUM
Energy: Ninety per cent of all zirconium produced is used in nuclear reactors because of its low neutron-capture cross-section and resistance to corrosion. It is the primary component in the zirconium aluminum alloy - 'zircaloy'.
Science and Medical: Zirconium is often used as an alloying agent in materials that are exposed to corrosive agents because of zirconium's excellent resistance to corrosion (e.g. surgical appliances, explosive primers, vacuum tube getters, filaments, performance pumps and valves). Zirconium dioxide (ZrO2) or zirconia is used in laboratory crucibles, metallurgical furnaces, and as a refractory material (e.g. furnace bricks).  Zirconium is also a component in some abrasives, such as grinding wheels and sandpaper.  Also used as a hardening agent in alloys, especially steel, and in catalytic converters and percussion caps.
Zirconium dioxide  has exceptional fracture toughness and chemical resistance, especially in its cubic form. These properties make zirconia useful as a thermal barrier coating, and stabilized with yttrium it is also a common artificial diamond substitute.  Stabilized zirconia is used for surgically implanted artificial joints.
Zirconium alloys are used in space vehicle parts for their resistance to heat, an important quality given the extreme heat associated with atmospheric reentry.
Zirconium oxide also used in dentistry for the crowning of teeth because of its biocompatibility, strength and appearance; Zirconium carbonate once used in lotions to treat poison ivy, but was discontinued as it caused other skin reactions.  A continuing big end-use however is in deodorants
Jewellery:  Zircon (ZrSiO4) is faceted into gemstones for use in jewelry. 
Other uses: Zirconium tungstate is an unusual substance that shrinks in all directions when heated, whereas other elements expand when heated; ZrZn2 is one of only two substances to exhibit superconductivity and ferromagnetism simultaneously (the other being UGe2). The paper and packaging industries are finding that zirconium compounds make good surface coatings because they have excellent water resistance and strength 

Hafnium -- Hf - Atomic Number 72
Hafnium is a ductile metal with a brilliant silver lustre and its properties are influenced considerably by any impurities of zirconium present. Of all the elements, zirconium and hafnium are two of the most difficult to separate.
APPLICATIONS OF HAFNIUM
Energy: Hafnium's excellent mechanical, corrosion-resistance and nuclear absorption properties allow its use in the harsh environment of pressurized water nuclear reactors, in particular in fission control rods.
Alloys: Small additions of hafnium increase the adherence of protective oxide scales on nickel based alloys.  It improves the corrosion resistance especially under cyclic temperature conditions that tend to break oxide scales by inducing thermal stresses between the bulk material and the oxide layer. Hafnium is also used in iron, titanium, niobium, tantalum, and other metal alloys.
C103 is an alloy, consisting of 89% niobium, 10% hafnium and 1% titanium, is used for liquid rocket thruster nozzles and was used for example, in the engine of the Apollo Lunar Lander Modules.
Electronics: Hafnium-based compounds can be employed in gate insulators in the 45 nm generation of integrated circuits from Intel, IBM and others. Hafnium oxide-based compounds have high dielectric constants making practical capacitors which allow reduction of the gate leakage current which improves performance at these scales. It is also being substituted for silicon in computer chips allowing for smaller sizes and hence faster functioning.
Other uses: Hafnium is a good scavenger for oxygen and nitrogen in gas-filled and incandescent lamps. Similarly it is also used in vacuum tubes as a "getter"; a metal that combines with and removes traces of gases such as oxygen from vacuum tubes.
Hafnium is also used as the electrode in plasma cutting. Hafnium carbide is the most refractory binary composition known.  Hafnium, tantalum carbides have the highest known melting temperature of 4,2150 C.
 
Tantalum - Ta - Atomic number 73
Tantalum is a grey, very heavy, and hard metal with high corrosion resistance and the highest known ability of all metals to store electricity.
APPLICATIONS OF TANTALUM
Electronics:   About 2/3 of all the tantalum produced is used in the construction of electronic capacitors which are fundamental to all electronic products.  Its ability to store electricity in small capacitors has allowed the miniaturization of aviation electronics, miniaturization of computers to desktop and laptops, and the miniaturization of all hand held electronic devices such as cell phones, PDAs and radios.
Specialized Uses: Tantalum carbides are significantly harder than tungsten carbides and as such, is the preferred carbide in high-speed machine tool bits, cutting tools, and teeth for construction, mining equipment and drill bits.  Its high strength, high temperature alloys find service in jet engines and other high temperature applications, and it is used directly to coat equipment that functions in highly corrosive and high temperature environments such as chemical processing plants. A new product, tantalum carbide graphite composite may be the hardest material made by man and has a melting temperature of 3738° C.  Of interest, tantalum was originally used in incandescent light filaments, however its rarity and cost led to it replacement by tungsten. 
Glass:  Tantalum oxide added to glass greatly increases its transparency and refractive index making possible lighter eyeglass, camera and camcorder lenses.
Medical:  Tantalum's inertness or immunity to attack by chemicals and its non-allergenic character lend to its use in surgical appliances and prosthetic implants.