Abstract. Proven mineral resources show that niobium is the most abundant of the refractory metals and extraction capacity is adequate to meet foreseeable requirements. Approximately four tons of Nb-1% Zr alloy were melted, forged, drawn, and rolled to produce various mill forms and relatively large die impression forgings. It was demonstrated that the Nb-1% Zr alloy is readily amenable to melting, primary working, and secondary working using standard equipment available in the specialty steel and nickel alloy industries. In general, the hot malleability of the alloy is significantly better than that of the more refractory nickel base high temperature alloys and is comparable to the stainless steels. Methods were successfully developed to protect the alloy against contamination during hot working. Cold fabricability proved to be outstanding. Reductions up to 90% were achieved during cold rolling of sheet with no intermediate stress relief or annealing treatment. Tube drawing reductions up to 50% were normal with no intermediate annealing. Over-all, the cold workability of this alloy was superior to that of the stainless steels. There was no problem of embrittlement over the full range of working temperatures which were used during the course of this work, namely from room temperature to 2350 …