NIOBIUM AND TANTALUM: STATE OF THE WORLD MARKET, FIELD OF APPLICATION, RAW PRODUCT SOURCES. Part 2

Abstract

Niobium and tantalum are rare refractory metals having significant industrial importance. Their reserves are attributed to «critical» raw material, thus leading to the necessity of estimating the risks connected with primary and technogenic raw sources of niobium and tantalum and the effect of these factors on the proposals and demands for these metals and their compounds taking into account the traditional and new areas of application. The analysis of world’s reserves of niobium and tantalum has been made. The dynamics of changing the raw material base structure and the technological solutions realized and proposed for their processing is considered. The modern market of materials on the basis of niobium and tantalum is described; the basic players in this market are specified; the trends in fluctuation of functional material consumption structure on the basis of these metals are considered.