Tantalum: Characteristics
The glass-like metal that packs charge into tiny pellets
What this tab covers The supply and physical characteristics of the commodity. Supply: current production, inventories and stocks, capacity utilisation, geographic and producer concentration, how fast supply responds to price, the project pipeline and capital spending, and logistics and export flows. Material: the physical and chemical properties that set its grade, price and end uses (for example purity and conductivity for metals, API gravity, sulfur and energy content for fuels, moisture, protein and fibre quality for crops).Supply volume characteristics
| Characteristic | Figure | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current production volume | about 2,500 t Ta content mine output (2025e) | DR Congo produced 1,300 t, Rwanda 400 t and Nigeria 390 t, much of it artisanal. World Mining Data gives 2,776 t Ta2O5 for 2024. | USGS MCS 2026; World Mining Data 2026 |
| Inventory and stock levels | not published; US stockpile buying | The US stockpile plan listed 29.26 t of tantalum metal as potential acquisitions and 0.09 t of disposals for FY2025. The Defense Logistics Agency placed an $8.6 million ingot order in September 2025. Commercial stocks are not reported. | USGS MCS 2026 |
| Capacity utilisation | not published | No mine or processing capacity is published. Artisanal output in Central Africa expands and contracts with price and security, so utilisation is not a meaningful single number. Industrial mines such as Wodgina (Australia) have shut and restarted with prices. | USGS MCS 2026; this tile's supercycle data |
| Geographic and producer concentration | DR Congo about 52%, top 3 (DRC, Rwanda, Nigeria) about 84%, HHI about 3,300 (2025, derived); WMD 2024 HHI 2,409 | Processing is concentrated in China, the US, Japan and Kazakhstan, which together supplied about 77% of HS 8103 exports by value in 2024. No company share is published; Global Advanced Metals, AMG, Ningxia Orient and Ulba are major processors. | USGS MCS 2026 (derived); World Mining Data 2026; UN Comtrade 2024 |
| Supply elasticity | high for artisanal supply, low for industrial mines (several years to restart) | Artisanal miners respond within months to price, while hard-rock mines have repeatedly closed in downturns. About a third of supply is co-produced with tin, lithium or niobium, so those markets also move tantalum supply. | EU CRM 2023; USGS MCS 2026 |
| Project pipeline and CapEx | US domestic processing contract up to $100 million over 5 years; lithium pegmatite co-product | The DLA awarded a 5-year contract worth up to $100 million to a Pennsylvania processor to keep a domestic ore-to-metal source. New hard-rock lithium mines with tantalum by-product add supply. A June 2025 DRC-Rwanda peace accord may stabilise the main region. | USGS MCS 2026 |
| Logistics and export flows | world HS 8103 exports about $730 million (2024) | Ore leaves the Great Lakes region by road to Dar es Salaam and Mombasa and is shipped to processors in China and elsewhere. Traceability schemes and the EU Conflict Minerals Regulation 2017/821 add checks at export. Imports of metal are led by the US (25.7%), Korea (15.2%) and Taiwan (12.0%). | UN Comtrade 2024; EU CRM 2023 |
Material characteristics Metal / hard commodity
Tantalum is bought for its oxide and its inertness. Its anodic oxide is an excellent dielectric, so a small sintered powder pellet holds a large, stable capacitance. The metal is almost as corrosion-proof as glass and melts above 3,000 C, which suits chemical equipment, implants and superalloys. Powder surface area and purity drive value more than tonnage.
| Property | Value / specification | Why it matters | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Concentrate grade | Tantalite and coltan traded at about 25-40% Ta2O5 | Price is quoted per kg or lb of contained Ta2O5; grade and uranium-thorium content affect payability | Argus; USGS MCS 2026 |
| Capacitor powder charge (CV) | about 10,000 to over 200,000 microfarad-volts per gram (indicative) | Higher CV powders make smaller capacitors for phones and servers and command premiums | Industry specifications (indicative) |
| Dielectric constant of Ta2O5 | about 25-27 | Gives high capacitance per volume with stable performance across temperature | CRC Handbook (indicative) |
| Melting point and density | 3,017 C; 16.7 g/cm3 | Used in high-temperature superalloys and furnace parts | CRC Handbook |
| Corrosion resistance | Resists most acids below about 150 C, except hydrofluoric acid | Chemical plant linings and medical implants | CRC Handbook |
| Ductility and strength | Annealed unalloyed tantalum (ASTM B708 R05200) tensile roughly 200-350 MPa with high elongation (indicative) | Easily drawn into wire and sheet for capacitor leads and sputtering targets | ASTM B708 (indicative) |