tantalum
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By Tom Butcher In addition to its base metal, oil and other natural resources, Brazil has considerable wealth in a variety of minor metals. Brazil has been having a very…
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By Ian Weekes, Crowe, Clarke, Whitehill EU announces agreement to curb the trade in Conflict Minerals The EU has announced that agreement has been reached in negotiations between the Commission,…
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The Crucible: January 2015
European Conflict Minerals Legislation – Where is this leading for EU business?
by MMTA January 30, 2015By Maria Cox, MMTA It would be very easy to think that because the EU’s proposed conflict minerals regulation has been announced as voluntary, it won’t have much of an… -
CRM - Critical Raw MaterialsCrucibleLegislation and RegulationResourcesThe Crucible: September 2022Trade Issues
ITSCI and the Congo – a long look back
by Polina Sparks September 29, 2022CPM Group is an independent commodities research, consulting, and investment banking advisory company headquartered in New York. In this analysis, CPM’s tantalum market experts Andrew Matheson and Patrick Stratton dig…
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CrucibleThe Crucible: February - March 2018
Letter from North America: Morocco padlock
by MMTA March 15, 2018Letter from North America: Morocco With an Observation on Rare Earths in Russia and Further Observations on Certain Mineral Resources in Morocco and Western Sahara Dear Members I trust…
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The world’s population is growing quickly; people are moving to urban centres, and raw material demand is expected to increase three-fold by 2050. Government and business need to face these…
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CrucibleThe Crucible: August 2023
Mission Improbable: Reshaping DRC’s artisanal mining
by Polina Sparks September 11, 2023On May 1st of this year, according to press reports, soldiers of the army of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) descended on the east of the country to…
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Welcome to the November Crucible Dear MMTA members, Welcome to your November 2023 edition of the Minor Metal Trade Association’s magazine, the Crucible. Following on from the October webinar, Mastering…
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CrucibleThe Crucible: March 2016
MMTA Welcomes Tophet Corporation as a New Member
by MMTA March 2, 2016Trader Tophet Corporation has been serving the specialty metals industry for over 20 years with a specific focus on vacuum melters. We are committed to sourcing and consistently delivering high… -
CrucibleThe Crucible: February 2023
Navigating supply constraints for high-temp metals
by Polina Sparks February 27, 2023Several high-temperature minor metal markets are emerging from a volatile few months, with hafnium and molybdenum prices surging as supply constraints bite, while niobium and tantalum navigate a more gradual…
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DRC court puts administrator in charge of Tenke Fungurume mine At the end of February, the Tribunal of Commerce in the south-eastern city of Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo, announced…
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Major moves in Michigan As mentioned in the January Crucible, lithium never sleeps. And neither does the rampant new trend of onshoring, and “friend-shoring”, heralded in particular by North America…
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CrucibleMinor Metals and ApplicationsThe Crucible: September 2024
Nuclear Propulsion in Space
by Polina Sparks September 29, 2024View from North America Dear MMTA Members, Good afternoon from Cleveland Heights, Ohio this Labor Day. And it is quite stunning weather here: sun shining, not too hot and…
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The Crucible: September 2015
Potential Record Breaking Metal for Highest Melting Temperature
by MMTA September 30, 2015A new material with a higher melting point than any other known substance has potentially been discovered by scientists. The alloy, which is a combination of hafnium, carbon and nitrogen,… -
CrucibleThe Crucible: July/August 2018
Roskill’s Tantalum 2018 Conference 25-26 September 2018- 10% off for MMTA members
by MMTA August 2, 2018Roskill’s inaugural Tantalum 2018 Conference will take place on 25-26 September at the Tower Hotel, London This is an unmissable event for all companies involved in the tantalum industry. By…
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T.I.C. 65th General Assembly
by Polina Sparks April 25, 2024Tantalum Niobium International Study Center (T.I.C.) 65th General Assembly and 50th Anniversary AGM The 65th General Assembly of the T.I.C. will take place at Hilton Odaiba, Tokyo, Japan on Sunday…
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CrucibleThe Crucible: August 2024
Tantalum smelters wary of DRC, Rwanda sourcing
by Polina Sparks August 30, 2024Conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and an ongoing dispute between two due diligence organisations has made global tantalum smelters more wary of sourcing material from DRC and…
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The Crucible: June 2016
Tantalum: Lessons learned, or will history repeat itself? Time will tell.
by MMTA June 30, 2016In 2015, an estimated 62% of global tantalum supply came from Africa, 45% of it from Central Africa, mainly from Rwanda and the DRC. That was not the case in the past and it may not be the case in future….
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The Crucible: June 2015
The Politics of Compromise – EU Conflict Minerals Regulation
by MMTA June 25, 2015In its vote on 20th May, the European Parliament overturned both the European Commission’s proposal as well as the recent vote of the International Trade Committee. The Commission originally proposed… -
CrucibleThe Crucible: November 2023
The Tantalum Industry — Change is afoot
by Polina Sparks December 4, 2023The tantalum industry is a very small place, so the news that one of the major tantalum processors, Global Advanced Metals (GAM) is for sale might strike one initially as…
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Recent reporting on conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), based in part on the UN Security Council’s Group of Experts report of December 2023 and in part…
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CrucibleMinor Metals and ApplicationsSustainability and Resource ManagementThe Crucible: October 2022
Trading Places: Material and Technology Substitution in the Electronic Age
by Polina Sparks October 22, 2022As one who pays superficial attention to the booming battery industry, I’m struck by the frequency with which new technologies are touted that are “set to replace lithium-ion…
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Visual Capitalist produces some fanstastic infographics, and they kindly gave the Crucible permission to reproduce them. The image below shows ‘What’s inside an iPhone 6’ and as you can see…