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ResourceInvestor - Blood Tantalum
budmelmon1
1/31/2009 10:51:34 AM | | 138 reads | Post #26005871
“Blood Tantalum” Profiteers in Congo Set to Capitalize on Dramatic 2009 Price Spike for Australian Tantalum
By Marc Davis, President, Davis & Associates Capital Corp.
05 Dec 2008 at 11:38 AM GMT-05:00
The bloody civil war that is creating another humanitarian crisis in
the central African nation of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
(DRC) is set to get far worse because of events a world away in
Australia.
VANCOUVER (ResourceInvestor.com) -- That promises to be the case if the
world’s leading tantalum supplier in Australia acts on a threat to
almost double the metal’s price, beginning in January, 2009.
Apparently, Perth-based Talison Minerals means business.
To underscore its resolve, Talison will cease mining tantalum
altogether in early December – at least for the foreseeable future.
This leaves only its existing stockpiles, which surely won’t compensate
for the fact that the company’s two major mines accounted for no less
than 50% of the world’s annual supply.
What’s the connection between the endless bloodshed in the DRC and the
closing of a mine thousands of miles away due to the global recession?
The tantalum in the DRC is far more inexpensively produced compared to
mining operations in the Western world. And some of it can be extracted
dirt cheap because of the brutal enslavement of civilian workforces --
including young children -- by armed factions.
Located in war-torn eastern Congo, these primitive open pit quarries
are controlled by various militias, rebel groups and renegade elements
of the Congolese army. These lawless thugs have profited for the past
few years from the tantalum, which is known as “coltan” in Africa, by
terrorizing rural communities and forcing locals to dig for this rare
mineral by hand.
By the way, if you own a mobile phone or a laptop or any other portable
electronic device, then there is a good likelihood that one or more of
your devices contains “blood tantalum.” And the odds are about to
increase that more of this illicit tantalum will find its way into your
hands. That is if the price of tantalum jumps as much as the 80-85%
increase recently demanded by Talison. This, in turn, will make cheaply
produced black market Congolese tantalum all the more attractive to
some unscrupulous processors of the metal -- even ones that are so
desperate for ore that they are willing to turn a blind eye.
With the stakes so high, much of this blood-tainted mineral is already
smuggled overseas by warlords or corrupt senior army officers for
lucrative cash rewards. Or it is mixed with ore from legitimate
Congolese mines, which are run by foreign and domestic companies in
trouble-free parts of the country.
Human rights organizations claim that some processors are willing to
buy tainted tantalum on the black market at bargain prices in China and
Russia. Significantly, an estimated $750 million worth of profits from
this illicit activity financed the war chests of the DRC’s feuding
forces between 2000 and 2004, according to the United Nations.
About 4-5 million, mostly civilian Congolese, have died--primarily from
disease and starvation--as a result of the civil war and the related
collapse of the nation’s economy. Currently, an estimated 1,000 people
are dying every day. Millions more have been displaced from their homes.
Talison Minerals claims they are being forced to dramatically raise
prices for the type of high purity tantalum that is used in electronics
because it represents only a small and largely unprofitable segment of
their business. And one that is slackening due to the slowdown in the
miniature electronics consumer market.
Furthermore, mining companies are now demanding long-term contracts
with buyers to ensure steady supplies, according to Dan Lane, marketing
director of AVX Corp., a major capacitor manufacturer.
Western politicians and tantalum industry experts, alike, argue that
the ultimate solution to the DRC’s escalating humanitarian crisis is
two-fold: outlaw blood tantalum and stabilize the world’s legitimate
tantalum supplies.
There is considerable encouragement on one front: the future
introduction of an internationally-sanctioned certification of origin
protocol for tantalum may eventually choke off much of the black market
for blood tantalum. Yet, the need to find new tantalum supplies in
conflict-free, politically stable nations is proving to be a more
problematic challenge. Especially since most of the world’s remaining
tantalum supplies are located in other sometimes turbulent African
nations.
Very few new sources of tantalum have emerged in recent years, even
though the mining industry has spent billions of dollars on mineral
exploration. There have been some reports of potential new deposits in
South America, Egypt and the Middle East, however, there is far more
interest in the discovery of new tantalum supplies in Western nations
with low political and currency risk.
The suspension of tantalum operations at both of Talison’s Australian
Wodgina and Greenbushes mines due to escalating production costs and
the global recession will make it all the more difficult for end-users
to source out conflict-free tantalum.
The economic and political repercussions of this scenario are not lost
on Talison’s CEO, Peter Robinson, whose words have chilling
implications for the DRC’s already traumatized population.
“Our goal is to bring Wodgina back into production as soon as the
global situation improves and demand and prices are stronger…Without
Talison’s supply, the majority of the world’s tantalum will come from
irregular and unreliable suppliers from politically unstable regions,
with much of it coming from the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” he
says.
The advent of a sudden tantalum supply/demand imbalance could
precipitate yet another dramatic price spike, like so many others that
have plagued the tantalum market over the past several decades. All of
which have been caused by a combination of strong demand and fears
about supply shortages.
Any new supply problems could be exacerbated by the fact that there are
new, 21st century markets for this high-tech metal -- not the least of
which is the exponential growth in the use of tantalum capacitors in
automobiles.
This looming supply quandary is being viewed as a call to action for a
small Canadian tantalum exploration and development company called
Commerce Resources. It is proving up a tantalum deposit in southeastern
British Columbia, one that could more than easily replace Congo’s
supplies of blood tantalum, the company says.
Additionally, Commerce believes it has enough tantalum supplies to
enter into long-term contracts with reputable, ore-hungry processors.
Without a doubt, Commerce’s plans to commercialize its Upper Fir
tantalum deposit by 2010 or early 2011 won’t come a moment too soon in
terms of helping to satisfy burgeoning worldwide demand.
So the race is on to develop strong reserves of reliable and legitimate
tantalum ore. Otherwise the temptation to profit from “blood tantalum”
may too great and will continue to heap misery on the people of the
DRC.