Tantalum and niobium are refractory rare metals. Their physical and chemical properties are very similar, and they are always associated with each other in nature. At present, there are more than 130 kinds of niobium and tantalum minerals, and more than 30 kinds of common minerals. Tantalum reserves are about 400,000 tons, and the tantalum resources that have been proved are mainly distributed in Australia, Africa, Brazil, etc. Tantalum is mainly distributed in Canada, Russia, southeast Asia and China. According to relevant data, tantalum reserves are distributed as follows: 50% in Australia, 21% in Asia, 14% in Africa, 8% in America and 7% in other countries. The world's largest tantalite is western Australia's Australia bush and green WoJie ore, the annual output of about 1134 tons, accounting for about 45% of the world's annual output, according to relevant data, our country has proven reserves of tantalum niobium ore less characteristic is scattered veins and complex mineral composition, about 4% of the world's reserves, the current production only can meet the required 20% tantalum industry in China, has to import most of the other. According to the survey: China's tantalum ore grade is not high, the main tantalum ore grade in 0.01%, compared with Australia's 0.03% tantalum ore grade, mining cost is higher. The other three best niobium sources in China are baotou in Inner Mongolia, zalutqi (801 ore) and zhushan in hubei province. The average content of Nb2O5 in the raw ore is only 0.1 ~ 0.3%, while the Araxa in Brazil alone contains 460 million tons of burnt greenstone with a boundary grade of 2% and the average grade of Nb2O5 in the raw ore is 2.5%.
After more than half a century of development, the tantalum and niobium industries in the world have reached a fairly high level. At present the world tantalum material production enterprise has the American Cabot group, the German HCST group and the Chinese ningxia 950 factory three systems; The major niobium material manufacturers are metallurgical minerals of Brazil (CBMM), Catalao Goias and Niobec of Canada.
