Tantalum could confidently take a leading place among metals. But its low prevalence (Ta contains only 0.0002% in the Earth's crust), its very high weight and high cost significantly limit its applications. With a density of 16.65 g/cm3, a melting point of 3,017°C and a Young's modulus (ability to resist tension, compression and elastic deformation) of 185 GPa, tantalum is stronger steels, heavier lead and more flexible copper. It also becomes a superconductor at temperatures below -268.7°C.
Tantalum is inert: even in hydrochloric acid heated to 200°C, the metal corrosion rate is only 0.006 mm per year. Another feature of Ta is biocompatibility: tantalum implants are not rejected by human tissues, but their cost is high (almost 500 times more expensive) titanium) make them inaccessible for widespread use.
Despite its high cost, almost everyone has a certain amount of this supermetal in their everyday life: capacitors made of tantalum and its oxides are widely used in automotive electronics and microprocessor technology, including PCs, smartphones, tablets, etc. This industry accounts for almost 60% of all tantalum produced in the world.
In addition, metallic tantalum is used in smelting heavy-duty alloys for production:
Tantalum pentoxide (Ta2O5) is used to make special glasses for camera lenses, reducing weight and improving the quality of lenses. Tantalum carbide is used to make extremely hard composite materials, which are then used in the manufacture of tool nozzles, in particular metal-cutting products.
In nature, tantalum is found mainly in minerals: tantalite, loparite, gatchettolite, columbite, euxenite, etc. The main ones, in addition to tantalum, contain niobium (Nb): if the amount of Nb is more than 50%, this is columbite, if more than 50% Ta is tantalite.
Until 2008, the main production of tantalum was concentrated on the African continent. But the unstable economic situation and the ban on some countries from exporting raw materials from conflict zones have encouraged other states to develop their own deposits. For example, Brazil's share of tantalum production, which barely reached 5% in 2010, is now more than 20%, producing about 450 tons of tantalum oxide annually. At the same time, African countries, which recently were practically the only suppliers of tantalum in the world, now produce just over half of tantalum raw materials.
Over the past decade, not only tantalum ore suppliers have changed, but also ideas about tantalum deposits themselves have changed. In the 10s. It was a widespread “fact” in the 21st century that 80% of the world's tantalum resources are located in Central Africa, in particular in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But this statement was refuted: according to current calculations by the US Geological Survey, the African continent accounts for no more than 10% of the world's Ta reserves, and South America — about 20%. Most of the tantalum ores are concentrated in Australia — scientists estimate that more than 60% of the world's Ta reserves are located here.
According to Russian geologists, there are also significant deposits of tantalum ores in the Russian Federation, but their quality is significantly lower than that of countries engaged in commercial metal mining. Most domestic deposits contain potentially industrial ores that date back to the late 1920s. The 19th century was of no commercial interest.
The main tantalum producer in Russia is Solikamsk Iron and Steel Works, whose main activity is the extraction and processing of rare earth metals. Tantalum is produced here from loparite concentrate extracted on the Kola Peninsula (this is where the largest niobium-tantalum mine in the Russian Federation is located). In addition to tantalum, the Solikamsk plant also produces strontium, titanium, niobium, thorium and other rare earth minerals from raw materials.
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