Mitsui Mining & Smelting to Use More Recycled Tantalum

Mitsui Mining & Smelting uses more recycled materials to make tantalum. The Miike Rare Metal Plant in Fukuoka makes tantalum oxide and tantalum carbide with concentrate and recycled material. However, the concentrate supply is unstable recent years in volume and price. The firm tries to keep stable supply and profit by increasing scrap consumption in volume and types.

Miike Rare Metal Plant uses lithium tantalate and tantalum containing scrap usually. The firm tries to gather more scrap from waste devices while the firm uses scrap from manufacturers. The firm will establish the feasible scrap gathering system for optical lens and waste cell phone to recover tantalum.

Tantalum ore is only in limited part of the earth including Australia, middle of Africa and Brazil. However, the world largest tantalum mine in Australia stopped the operation and the users limit the use of tantalum from Africa to avoid funding to civil war in the region. The limited ore supply encourages more utilization for recycled material.

Japanese tantalum demand for smelting decreased by 14% to 274 tonnes including powder and compound in 2009 from 2008, according to Japan Society of Newer Metals. The demand decreased for 3 years in a row due to slow economy. The demand decreased by 12% to 188 tonnes for powder and by 19% to 86 tonnes for compound.