Paul Dhé from France first proposed extruding fibers from basalt and received a U.S. patent in 1923.
Around 1960, both the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR) began researching the applications of basalt fiber, particularly in the military field. In the 1970s, American glass companies implemented a research strategy that made glass fiber more favored than basalt fiber, while in Eastern Europe, the Soviet Ministry of Defense nationalized research.
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Soviet research results were declassified and became available for civilian use.
Today, research, production, and most marketing efforts for basalt fiber are primarily concentrated in countries once part of the Soviet Union (Ukraine, Russia) and China.
