Abstract:At present, most of the research on niobium resource is in the conventional heating stage, due to existing of high energy consumption and cold center, it cannot be widely popularized. Microwave heating technology is a new heating technology, which can effectively avoid cold center and other problems. Carbothermic reduction reaction of niobium concentrate was combined with microwave heating by means of microwave muffle furnace, and effects of reduction temperature, carbon ratio and holding time on metallization rate of niobium concentrate and growth behavior of metal particles were investigated. The results show that microwave heating is superior to conventional heating in carbothermic reduction reaction. Under microwave heating, metallization rate is 94.84% when reduction temperature is 1 100 ℃, holding time is 30 min and carbon ratio is 1. NbC begins to form at 1 000 ℃, niobium titanium products are mainly (Ti,Nb)C at 1 100 ℃, and titanium products are mainly in the form of TiC at 1 300 ℃.