Abstract:As a strategic critical metal, niobium is widely used in the fields of aerospace, nuclear industry, and superconductors owing to its superior properties. With the requirement of sustainable development, the energy consumption in niobium melting processes has attracted increasing attention. Green, low-carbon, and energy-saving practices have become the new development direction. In addition, microelectronics technology requires high-purity niobium as a sputtering target material. Although niobium with a purity of up to 5N has been achieved, a low-cost high-purity technique is still challenging. This review summarized a variety of pyrometallurgical methods for the preparation and purification of crude niobium. As a traditional method for producing crude niobium, the key challenge of thermal reduction is how to reduce energy consumption. As a technique with industrial propects, molten salt electrolysis has been developed into a variety of methods, but the efficiency needs to be further improved. In addition, some new purification techniques are constantly emerging, such as fully-automated melting technique assisted by the digital twin and artificial intelligence. In the future, a variety of technical means will be combined to purify niobium metal. This review also briefly introduced the current status of niobium recovery and further explored the full lifecycle of niobium based on the concept of urban mine, to provide direction for achieving niobium recycling.