By Pablo Sinha and Ashitha Shivaprasad
March 16 (Reuters) – Tantalite prices have surged to their highest level in more than two decades on supply fears following landslides at a major mine in top producer, the Democratic Republic of Congo, while demand for the metal used in electronics and chemical-processing equipment remained robust.
Tantalite is the primary source of tantalum, a metal used in capacitors, aerospace components, and nuclear technology.
Here are some details and background:
* European tantalite prices have surged to $200–$210 per pound, a 90% year-to-date jump and the highest since the 2000s.
* Earlier this month, a landslide hit the Rubaya columbite–tantalite mine in eastern Congo.
* The Rubaya mine is in rebel-controlled territory and falls outside any official due diligence system, but the shutdown is still disrupting supply because much of the metal from the DRC ends up in top consumer China, three market sources said.
* According to the U.S. Geological Survey, Congo produced more than 50% of global tantalum mine output in 2025, while Rwanda is a major producer and exporter.
* “AI data centers are expected to buy up a lot of tantalum-containing products like capacitors and memory chips this year. Additionally, if you’re building an AI data center with a big gas turbine, some of the super-alloys used in industrial gas turbine blades contain significant amounts of tantalum,” said Sian Morris, a senior analyst at information provider Argus.
(Reporting by Ashitha Shivaprasad and Pablo Sinha in Bengaluru; Editing by Eileen Soreng)
