The Association
- An international, non-profit association founded in 1974 under Belgian law.
- 85 members from more than 20 different countries involved with all aspects of the tantalum and niobium industry supply chain (mining, trading, processing, metal fabrication, capacitor manufacturing, recycling, other end-users such as medical, aerospace...)
- Managed by an Executive Committee representing all segments of the industry.
Objectives
- Increase awareness and promote the remarkable properties of tantalum and niobium.
- Organize a general assembly of the membership in October each year for business and technical presentations. The location is chosen so that a tour of a member company facility in the area can be included in the programme. Guests may attend.
- Organize a longer symposium in October about every five years for business and technical presentations, sometimes with tours of member company facilities in the area.
- Publish a quarterly Bulletin, in electronic format.
- Collect from the members (via an independent company to ensure confidentiality), statistics on raw material production, processor's receipts and product shipments, and capacitor producer's receipts for tantalum, while for niobium raw material production and processor's product shipments are collected. Report consolidated data to the membership on a quarterly basis.
- Address major issues and challenges facing its industry: artisanal and small-scale mining, transport of radioactive materials...
Membership
- Corporate membership - available to companies directly involved with the tantalum and/or niobium industry.
- Associate membership - available to researchers, academics, authors, and governmental bodies.
​Further details on applying for membership can be found here [1].