Press Release: Raw Material Supplies for Tantalum Production

The subsidiary of NAC Kazatomprom, Ulba Metallurgical Plant, has won the tender held by the Defense Logistics Agency for sale of tantalum-niobium concentrates. The total amount of the concentrate sold is 450,000 pounds of tantalum oxide, or 370,000 pounds of tantalum metal (Ta). The tender resulted in purchase of 40 tons of Ta in tantalum-niobium concentrates by Ulba Metallurgical Plant at the price of $19/lbs Ta2O5.

The US Government, in the person of the Defense Logistics Agency, periodically puts up for tender the governmental stockpiles, including tantalum-niobium concentrates. Participation in the tender has enabled the company not only to present itself at the US governmental level but also to buy tantalum raw material at a price lower than the market price and provide OJSC UMP's tantalum production with a long-term stable source of supply.

OJSC UMP's tantalum production is a large facility, which includes: hydrofluoric acid production workshop, tantalum and niobium chemical and metallurgical decomposition workshop, metallurgy. The main directions of the tantalum production development are the following: research and development of the high capacity powder; development of technologies and establishing capacities for full processing of tantalum-niobium raw material; development of the full-range niobium production.

For information:

Tantalum has a unique complex of properties including a high level of resistance to heat, corrosion, strength and moldability for which it has found wide application in electronics, aerospace, chemical and metal processing industries, medicine, non-linear and integrated optics. The largest use of tantalum is the production of modern electrolytic capacitors which possess the highest specific capacitance, while having minimum dimensions, and they are known for their high reliability at wide range of temperatures.

Niobium is well-known for its refractoriness: the ability to form superconductive and chemically stable alloys characterized by a high level of weldability with moderate density, similar to the density of alloyed steel. It is widely used in ferrous metallurgy for the production of high-strength steels and super-alloys.