Boron is an extremely valuable mineral and it is used in many products from cookware and medicine to nuclear waste storage and space exploration. Boron compounds are mainly used in borosilicate glass products, but are also used in agriculture, in fire retardants, and in soaps and detergents.
Boron is used in special-purpose alloys, in cementation of iron, as oxygen scavenger for copper and other metals, as fibres and filaments in composites with metals or ceramics, as semiconductor, for nuclear reactors, as a shield for nuclear radiation and in instruments used for detecting neutrons. Boron is used in pyrotechnic flares (distinctive green colour), for rockets (as an igniter), in boron-coated tungsten wires and in high temperature brazing alloys.