News

18th Plansee Seminar: international conference on refractory metals and hard materials
16. May 2013

The 18th Plansee Seminar will be held on the premises of the Plansee Group in Reutte, Austria from 3 - 7 June, 2013.

 

Since its beginnings in 1952, the Plansee Seminar has been regarded as a global forum to exchange ideas and keep up with the latest innovations and market trends in Refractory Metals and Hard Materials.

 

It will provide the opportunity to gain insights into all aspects of this exciting class of materials, covering materials science, manufacturing technology and applications as well as to display the contributors' latest achievements in these areas.  Practitioners and scientists, both experienced and novices, are cordially invited to participate.

 

The published programme lists 19 papers that include a reference to niobium and 11 papers that include a reference to tantalum (some include both).

 

For further details see the Plansee website.

 
Roskill publishes its twelfth report on niobium: Market Outlook to 2017
23. April 2013

From Roskill's website:

 

Demand for niobium is driven by two sets of factors. One is the overall growth in the global economy, which directly influences the demand for steel, where most niobium is used, and the demand for aerospace superalloys, which are the largest non-steel market. Future demand for niobium will follow the overall economic trend, at the very least. The other factor is the incidence of use in steel, which could be the principal driver of structural increases in demand in the coming years.

 

For further details see Roskill.

 
KEMET Receives Conflict-Free Tantalum Smelter Certification
25. February 2013

KEMET announced that it has received Conflict-Free Smelter (CFS) Certification from the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC) and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) Conflict-Free Smelter Audit Review Committee (ARC).

 

KEMET’s supply chain begins with tantalum ore sourced from the conflict-free Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, through processing in South Africa and the United States, all the way through capacitor manufacturing in Mexico.

 

Full article (KEMET)

 
"My search for green tin in the Congo" - from a participant in the CFTI delegation in the DRC
11. February 2013

 

In a story indirectly related to tantalum, a delegation is this week visiting the Conflict Free Tin Initiative pilot mine in South Kivu, where traceability is provided by the iTSCi programme.  One of the participants in this delegation writes about his experience:
 
 
By Mike Loch
Published February 11, 2013
 
I am excited to be returning to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) this week. My previous visit in January and February of last year was with a delegation aiming to analyze and audit the first conflict-free supply of tantalum from the DRC via the Solutions for Hope “closed pipe” project. The success of Solutions for Hope, which Motorola Solutions helped to found with AVX, proved that it is possible to source minerals from the DRC through a secure, traceable chain of custody from mine to smelter. This trip extends from that work with the Conflict-Free Tin Initiative (CFTI).
 

Tantalum is one of four minerals identified as a source of funding for a brutal civil war in the DRC. Armed groups control some of the mines and transport routes in the North and South Kivu provinces and extort money during transport across this vast country. The other three conflict minerals are tin, tungsten and gold. The main aim of this trip is to assess a pilot project that supplies conflict-free tin from a conflict region in a similar approach to the Solutions for Hope project.   ...

 

Full article (GreenBiz)

Mike Loch is the Director, Supply Chain Corporate Responsibility for Motorola Solutions Inc.  He is responsible for Motorola’s Global Supplier Corporate Responsibility Program. Mike is on the Governance Committee of the Public Private Alliance for Responsible Minerals Trade.

 
KEMET Corporation and NEC TOKIN Start Alliance
1. February 2013

Tokyo - KEMET Corporation, a leading manufacturer of capacitors based in the United States, and NEC TOKIN Corporation (“NEC TOKIN”), a leading manufacturer of tantalum capacitors based in Japan, announced today the closing of the first step in their alliance with the completion of a capital injection of USD 50 million (approximately JPY 4.4 billion) by KEMET Electronics Corporation, KEMET’s wholly-owned subsidiary (collectively with KEMET Corporation, “KEMET”), into NEC TOKIN.

 

Full article (KEMET)

 
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