SYDNEY, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Rare rocks buried deep beneath central Australia reveal the origins of a promising niobium deposit, a critical metal essential for clean energy and advanced steelmaking.

The study found the newly discovered niobium-rich carbonatites were emplaced more than 800 million years ago, rising from deep within the Earth through pre-existing fault zones during a tectonic rifting event that ultimately tore apart the supercontinent Rodinia, said a statement released Wednesday by Australia's Curtin University.

These carbonatites contain important concentrations of niobium, a strategic metal used to make lighter, stronger steel for aircraft, pipelines and electric vehicles, and a key component in some next-generation battery and superconducting technologies, according to the research published in the Geological Magazine in Britain.

The findings reveal how rare, metal-rich magmas reach the surface, and why this particular deposit is so interesting, said the study's lead author Maximilian Drollner from the Timescales of Mineral Systems Group within Curtin's Frontier Institute for Geoscience Solutions and Germany's University of Gottingen.

Using multiple isotope-dating techniques on drill core samples, the team found that these carbonatites were emplaced between 830 and 820 million years ago, during a period of continental rifting that preceded the breakup of Rodinia.

"This tectonic setting allowed carbonatite magma to rise through fault zones that had remained open and active for hundreds of millions of years, delivering metal-rich melts from deep in the mantle up into the crust," Drollner said. ■