Coltan (short for columbite–tantalite and known industrially as tantalite) is a dull black metallic ore from which the elements niobium and tantalum are extracted. The niobium-dominant mineral in coltan is columbite (after niobium's original name columbium), and the tantalum-dominant mineral is tantalite.
Among other uses, tantalum from coltan is used to manufacture tantalum capacitors which are used for mobile phones, personal computers, automotive electronics, and cameras. Niobium is used in the manufacture of MRI magnets and as an additive to steel. Coltan mining is widespread in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Production and supply
Approximately 71% of the global tantalum supply in 2008 was newly mined, 20% was from recycling, and the remainder was from tin slag and inventory. Tantalum minerals are mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Colombia, Rwanda, Australia, Brazil, China, Ethiopia, Mozambique and Kenya. Tantalum is also produced in Thailand and Malaysia as a by-product of tin mining and smelting. Potential future mines, in descending order of magnitude, are being explored in Egypt, Greenland, China, Australia, Finland, Canada, Nigeria and Brazil.
Globally, 60% of all mining companies have registered with the highly regulated stock exchanges in Toronto and Vancouver. However, due to environmental regulations, no mining of coltan is currently taking place in Canada itself, with the exception of a single proposed mine in Blue River, British Columbia. In Canada, Tanco Mine near Bernic Lake in Manitoba has tantalum reserves, is the world's largest producer of caesium, and is operated by Global Advanced Metals Pty Ltd. A discussion of Canadian mining by Natural Resources Canada, updated in 2017, does not mention either coltan or tantalum. A Rwandan official discussing prospective mines in his country said that Canada had 4% of global production in 2009; but in rock so hard that the ore is too expensive to extract. In 2009, Rwanda had 9% of the world's tantalum production.
In 2016, Rwanda accounted for 50% of global tantalum production. In 2016, Rwanda announced that AB Minerals Corporation would open a coltan separation plant in Rwanda by mid-2017, the first to operate on the African continent. Uganda and Rwanda both exported coltan in the early 2000s after they invaded the DRC, but the bulk of this coltan was not mined within those countries but smuggled from Congolese mines, according to the final report of the UN Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In 2013, Highland African Mining Company (HAMC), now Noventa, closed its Marropino mine in the Gilé District of Zambézia Province, Mozambique, citing poor-quality infrastructure and ore that was both very radioactive and mostly depleted. HAMC was losing US$3.00 on every ton extracted and had reported accumulated losses of around US$150 million by June 2013.
Reserves have been identified in Afghanistan, but the ongoing war there precludes either general exploration or exploring specifically for coltan for the foreseeable future. The United States does not produce tantalum due to the poor quality of its reserves.
Australian mining company Sons of Gwalia once produced half the world's tantalum but went into administration in 2004. Talison Minerals paid $205 million to buy the Wodgina and Greenbushes tantalum business of Sons of Gwalia but temporarily closed Wodgina because of falling tantalum prices. The mine re-opened in 2011 but closed again after less than a year. Atlas Iron began mining iron ore there in 2010 and ceased operations there in April 2017. Global Advanced Mining announced in 2018 that it planned to restart tantalum production at the Greenbushes mine within a year. Talison Lithium, 51% owned by Chinese company Tianqi Lithium Industries, Inc. (SZSE:002466) and 49% by the US-based Albemarle Corporation, will continue to mine lithium at Greenbushes in parallel with the GAM tantalum operation.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez announced in 2009 that a significant reserve of coltan was discovered in western Venezuela, although at least one coltan mining operation had previously been authorized in the area. Nonetheless, he outlawed private mines in the region and, saying that the FARC was financing itself with illegal mining, sent 15,000 troops in to deal with them. Technical advisers for the mining project were allegedly provided by a subsidiary of Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters, a fully owned enterprise of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard which had been under US sanctions since 25 October 2007.
Also in 2009, the Colombian government announced coltan reserves had been found in Colombia's eastern provinces.Más sal a la herida en relaciones entre Colombia y Venezuela, 04 December 2009 Director of the Colombian Police Oscar Naranjo Trujillo stated in October 2011 that the FARC and the Sinaloa Cartel are working together in the unlicensed coltan mining in Colombia. Colombia announced a joint operation with the United States to arrest three suspects who, according to Semana, inherited the illegal business run from their brother, Francisco Cifuentes Villa, alias 'Pancho Cifuentes', who once worked for Pablo Escobar. In 2012 Colombian police seized 17 tons of coltan in Guainía Department. The police said it had been mined on an indigenous reserve and bought for $10 a kilo and sold for $80 to 100 dollars a kilo, after smuggling it across the border into Brazil, where there are smelters, and sold on through the black market to buyers in Germany, Belgium, Kazakhstan and the United States. Colombia has 5% of global coltan reserves. One of the regions suffering from illegal gold and coltan mining in Colombia is the wetland known as Estrella Fluvial del Inírida (Inírida Fluvial Star), a Ramsar protected wetland.
+ Tonnes of tantalum mined 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Australia 165 218 224 170 238 274 276 302 330 350 485 660 940 765 807 854 478 441 557 81 0 80 0 0 Brazil 90 84 60 50 50 50 55 55 310 165 190 210 200 200 213 216 176 180 180 180 180 180 140 140 Canada 86 93 48 25 36 33 55 49 57 54 57 77 58 55 57 63 56 45 40 25 0 25 50 50 D.R. Congo 10 16 8 6 1 1 130 60 30 15 20 33 14 71 100 87 100 110 Rwanda 113 165 121 124 125 123 116 112 110 107 102 85 62 210 264 187 134 144 171 115 110 120 150 150 Africa, Other 45 66 59 59 8 3 3 3 82 76 208 173 242 245 333 214 146 135 313 297 391 390 230 140 WORLD 396 477 399 310 333 361 389 409 779 645 1070 1180 1470 1280 1430 1380 870 872 1190 670 681 790 670 590 1990–1993: U.S. Geological Survey, "1994 Minerals Yearbook" (MYB), "Columbium (niobium) and tantalum" by Larry D. Cunningham, Table 10; 1994–1997: MYB 1998, Table 10; 1998–2001: MYB 2002, p. 21.13; 2002–2003: MYB 2004, p. 20.13; 2004: MYB 2008, p. 52.12; 2005-2009: MYB 2009, p. 52.13. USGS did not report data for other countries (China, Kazakhstan, Russia, etc.) owing to data uncertainties. Not available. Zero.
+ % of Global tantalum production from mining 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Australia 41.7% 45.7% 56.1% 54.8% 71.5% 75.9% 71.0% 73.8% 42.4% 54.3% 45.3% 55.9% 63.9% 59.8% 56.4% 61.9% 54.9% 50.6% 46.8% 12.1% 0.0% 10.1% 0.0% 0.0% Brazil 22.7% 17.6% 15.0% 16.1% 15.0% 13.9% 14.1% 13.4% 39.8% 25.6% 17.8% 17.8% 13.6% 15.6% 14.9% 15.7% 20.2% 20.6% 15.1% 26.9% 26.4% 22.8% 20.9% 23.7% Canada 21.7% 19.5% 12.0% 8.1% 10.8% 9.1% 14.1% 12.0% 7.3% 8.4% 5.3% 6.5% 3.9% 4.3% 4.0% 4.6% 6.4% 5.2% 3.4% 3.7% 0.0% 3.2% 7.5% 8.5% D.R. Congo 2.5% 3.4% 2.0% 1.9% 0.3% 0.3% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 12.1% 5.1% 2.0% 1.2% 1.4% 2.4% 1.6% 8.1% 8.4% 13.0% 14.9% 18.6% Rwanda 16.2% 15.2% 22.4% 25.4% Africa, Other 11.4% 13.8% 14.8% 19.0% 2.4% 0.8% 0.8% 0.7% 10.5% 11.8% 19.4% 14.7% 16.5% 19.1% 23.3% 15.5% 16.8% 15.5% 26.3% 44.3% 57.4% 49.4% 34.3% 23.7% WORLD 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
Use and demand Coltan is used primarily for the production of tantalum capacitors, used in mobile phones and almost every kind of electronic device. Niobium and tantalum have a wide range of uses, including refractive lenses for glasses, cameras, phones and printers. They are also used in semiconductor circuits, and capacitors for small electronic devices such as hearing aids, pacemakers, and MP3 players, as well as in computer hard drives, automobile electronics, and surface acoustic wave SAW filters for mobile phones. affiliated with Research Associate, CRIDS, University of Namur1 and University of the Witwatersrand.
Coltan is also used to make high-temperature alloys for jet engines, air-based turbines, and land-based turbines. More recently, in the late 2000s, the nickel-tantalum super-alloys used in jet engines account for 15% of tantalum consumption, but pending orders for the Airbus and the 787 Dreamliner may increase this proportion, as well as China's pending order for 62 787-8 airplanes.
In 2012, electronics companies that used coltan included Acer Inc., AMP, Apple Inc., Canon Inc., Dell, HP Inc., HTC, IBM, Intel, Lenovo, LG, Microsoft, Motorola, Nikon, Nintendo, Nokia, Panasonic, Philips, RIM (now Blackberry Limited), Samsung, Sandisk, Sharp Corporation, Sony, and Toshiba. Some companies have taken steps to reduce their use of conflict minerals by tracing the source of minerals in their supply chains, auditing smelters, and certifying conflict-free coltan mines. As of 2012, the companies that lagged behind these efforts the most were Nintendo, HTC, Sharp Corporation, Nikon, and Canon Inc.
Resource curse
Certain countries rich in natural resources have been said to suffer from the apparently paradoxical "resource curse" - showing worse economic development than countries with fewer resources. Wealth of resources may also correspond to "... the likelihood of weak democratic development, corruption, and civil war". High levels of corruption lead to great political instability because whoever controls the assets (usually the political leaders and the government, in the case of the Democratic Republic of the Congo) can use them for their own benefit. The resources generate wealth, which the leaders use to stay in power "... either through legal means, or coercive ones (e.g. funding militias)". The increased importance of coltan in electronics "occurred as warlords and armies in the eastern Congo converted artisanal mining operations ... into slave labour regimes to earn hard currency to finance their militias," as one anthropological study put it in 2008. When much of eastern Congo came under the control of Rwandan forces in the 1990s, Rwanda suddenly became a major exporter of coltan, benefiting from the weakness of the Congolese government. The soaring price "brought in as much as $20 million a month to rebel groups" and other factions trading coltan mined in northeastern Congo, according to a U.N. report.
Mining