Boron is a metalloid chemical element with symbol B and atomic number 5. Produced entirely by cosmic ray spallation and supernovae and not by stellar nucleosynthesis, it is a low-abundance element in both the Solar system and the Earth's crust. Boron is concentrated on Earth by the water-solubility of its more common naturally occurring compounds, the borate minerals. These are mined industrially as evaporites, such as borax and kernite. The largest proven boron deposits are in Turkey, which is also the largest producer of boron minerals.
Chemically uncombined boron is found in small amounts in meteoroids but is not found naturally on Earth. Industrially, very pure boron is produced with difficulty, as boron tends to form refractory materials containing small amounts of carbon or other elements. Several allotropes of boron exist: amorphous boron is a brown powder, and crystalline boron is silvery to black, extremely hard (about 9.5 on the Mohs scale), and a poor conductor at room temperature. The primary use of elemental boron is to make boron filaments, which are used in a similar way to carbon fibers in some high-strength materials
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