Coltan

Coltan, an abbreviation for columbite–tantalite and also called tantalite in industry, is a matte black metallic ore. It yields two elements: niobium and tantalum. When niobium dominates the mineral, it’s known as columbite (named after niobium’s original name, columbium); when tantalum dominates, it’s tantalite. Tantalum from coltan goes into making tantalum capacitors, which are key parts of mobile phones, personal computers, car electronics, and cameras. Niobium is used in MRI magnets and as an additive to steel. Mining of coltan is common in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In 2008, about 71% of the world’s tantalum came from newly mined ore, 20% from recycling, and the rest from tin slag and stockpiles. Countries where tantalum minerals are mined include the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Colombia, Rwanda, Australia, Brazil, China, Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Kenya. Thailand and Malaysia produce tantalum as a by-product of tin mining and smelting. Future mines are being explored in Egypt, Greenland, China, Australia, Finland, Canada, Nigeria, and Brazil, listed in order of potential size.

Globally, 60% of mining companies are listed on the tightly regulated stock exchanges in Toronto and Vancouver. However, no coltan mining currently happens in Canada itself due to environmental rules, except for one proposed mine at Blue River, British Columbia. The Tanco Mine near Bernic Lake, Manitoba, holds tantalum reserves and is the world’s top producer of caesium, run by Global Advanced Metals Pty Ltd. A 2017 Natural Resources Canada report on Canadian mining doesn’t mention coltan or tantalum. A Rwandan official, discussing potential mines in his country, noted that Canada had 4% of global tantalum production in 2009, but the ore is in rock so hard that extraction costs are too high. In 2009, Rwanda itself produced 9% of the world’s tantalum.

By 2016, Rwanda accounted for 50% of global tantalum production. That year, Rwanda announced that AB Minerals Corporation would open a coltan separation plant there by mid-2017, the first such facility in Africa. According to the final report of the UN Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Rwanda both exported coltan in the early 2000s after invading the DRC, but most of it was smuggled from Congolese mines, not mined locally.

In 2013, Highland African Mining Company (HAMC), now called Noventa, shut down its Marropino mine in Mozambique’s Gilé District, citing poor infrastructure and ore that was both highly radioactive and mostly depleted. HAMC was losing $3.00 per ton extracted and had reported accumulated losses of about $150 million by June 2013.

Reserves have been found in Afghanistan, but the ongoing war there prevents exploration or mining for coltan in the near future. The United States doesn’t produce tantalum because its reserves are of poor quality. Australian company Sons of Gwalia once supplied half the world’s tantalum but went into administration in 2004. Talison Minerals paid $205 million to buy Sons of Gwalia’s Wodgina and Greenbushes tantalum operations but temporarily closed Wodgina due to falling prices. The mine reopened in 2011 but closed again in under a year. Atlas Iron started mining iron ore there in 2010 and stopped in April 2017. In 2018, Global Advanced Mining said it planned to restart tantalum production at Greenbushes within a year. Talison Lithium, 51% owned by China’s Tianqi Lithium and 49% by U.S.-based Albemarle Corporation, will keep mining lithium at Greenbushes alongside the tantalum operation.

In 2009, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez announced a large coltan reserve in western Venezuela, though at least one mining operation had already been authorized there. He banned private mines in the area and sent 15,000 troops to deal with the FARC, which he said was funding itself through illegal mining. Technical advisers for the mining project were reportedly provided by a subsidiary of Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters, an enterprise fully owned by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, under U.S. sanctions since October 2007.

Also in 2009, Colombia’s government announced coltan reserves in its eastern provinces. In October 2011, Colombian Police Director Oscar Naranjo Trujillo said the FARC and the Sinaloa Cartel were working together in unlicensed coltan mining there. Colombia launched a joint operation with the United States to arrest three suspects who, according to Semana, inherited an illegal business from their brother, Francisco Cifuentes Villa, alias ‘Pancho Cifuentes,’ a former associate of Pablo Escobar. In 2012, Colombian police seized 17 tons of coltan in Guainía Department. The police said it was mined on an indigenous reserve, bought for $10 per kilo, and sold for $80 to $100 per kilo after being smuggled into Brazil, where smelters exist, then sold on the black market to buyers in Germany, Belgium, Kazakhstan, and the United States. Colombia holds 5% of global coltan reserves. One area hit by illegal gold and coltan mining is the Estrella Fluvial del Inírida wetland, a Ramsar protected site.

Coltan is mainly used to make tantalum capacitors, found in mobile phones and nearly all electronic devices. Niobium and tantalum also have a wide range of other applications.