Back in 2010, the European Union's Ad-Hoc Working Group on Defining Critical Raw Materials published its first criticality analysis for raw materials. Its goal was fairly simple: to define the raw materials critical to the EU’s economy and from there “manage responses to raw materials issues at an EU level."
The group ultimately concluded that of the 41 non-energy, non-agricultural materials it looked at, 14 qualified as critical raw materials. Those were: antimony, gallium, magnesium, tantalum, beryllium, germanium, niobium, tungsten, cobalt, graphite, platinum-group metals, fluorspar, indium and rare earths.
Of course, a lot can change in little time, especially in the resource space. That’s why the Ad-Hoc Working Group is committed to reviewing and updating its list of critical raw materials at least every three years. Accordingly, in 2013 it began work on a new report that was ultimately released last month.
For those involved in the tantalum space, the most important change is that tantalum, now deemed to have “a lower supply risk,” has been taken off the list. As the report explains, when the 2010 report was published, Australia, which has an “excellent governance rating,” was not producing tantalum due to low prices, with the result being that the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), whose governance rating is “poor,” was supplying much of the world’s tantalum.
As of 2013, Australia was still not producing tantalum; however, in the past few years Brazil has “emerged as an important tantalum supplier,” balancing out the risk associated with the DRC.
To find out which other countries are significant tantalum producers, Tantalum Investing News took a look at 2013 tantalum production figures from the US Geological Survey. Below is a list of those countries, along with a little background information on each nation.
