From Roskill's: The Economics of Tantalum, 1999
Tantalum transformed into valuable resource
"Over the past few decades tantalum has been transformed from a minor by-product of tin mining to a valuable resource. The cause is the strong growth in consumption: the development of tantalum capacitors, initially for military applications and more recently for small portable electronics, has led to growth averaging over 10% per year since 1992. The growth in demand for tantalum capacitors is expected to continue to boom over the next two years, reaching 25 Bn units by 2000...
REPORT HIGHLIGHTS
The Wodgina mine in Australia (4,730,000t @ 525 g/t Ta2O3), acquired by Sons of Gwalia in 1996, is the first large operation being exploited solely for its tantalum content. Capacity is planned to increase to 300,000 lb per year Ta2O5 in the near future.
Sons of Gwalia accounts for at least half of all mine production: other important producers include Tanco of Canada and Metallurg in Brazil. The Yichun mine accounts for over half of China's current production, but output is expected to increase significantly with the help of western finance.
Hard rock sources will become increasingly important as stocks of low-grade tin piles start to run out: the greater reliance on these sources will maintain the upward trend in prices. There is unlikely to be any recurrence of instability in the market, as the integration between producers, processors and consumers has resulted in a smaller number of players who are better equipped to handle the potentially volatile nature of the industry.
Tantalum has become an important addition to superalloys, particularly those used for casting single-crystal turbine blades for aero-engines. This application accounts for around 100,000t of Ta2O5 each year, although the expected downturn in the commercial aircraft industry will restrain short-term growth. Several new uses for tantalum have been developed: tantalum oxides are finding use in new electronics applications, including memory chips and processors."
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DRT
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