Tantalum, It's The Only Thing People Want To Talk About

I mean, look at some of these headlines:

March 16: "Searching for the decay of nature's rarest isotope: Tantalum-180m"

March 15: "Effect of CH₄ on plasma spheroidization of tantalum powder"

March 1: "Improving the stability of ceramic-type lithium tantalum phosphate (LiTa₂PO₈) solid electrolytes in all-solid-state batteries"

December 2023: "Tantalum cold spray boosts potential of fusion reactor chambers"

December 2023: "Exclusive: Australia's Liontown in talks with US Defense Dept on tantalum supply"

And what, wary yet possibly curious reader is wondering, led to this particular rabbit hole?

From Bloomberg:

Congo Rebels Block Trade Routes, Threatening Supply of Key Metal

• Tantalum exports fell 59% from North Kivu province in 2023
• Conflict taints supply of metal used in portable electronics

The world’s supply of tantalum, an essential component in most computers and mobile phones, is under threat as armed rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have encircled a key trading hub.

Since last month, the M23, a rebel group that Congo says is backed by neighboring Rwanda, has blocked trade routes to the city of Goma and is helping to smuggle tantalum from some of the country’s richest deposits, according to Congolese government and military officials and United Nations experts.

“They’re taking it to Rwanda,” likely through Virunga National Park, Lt. Col. Guillaume Ndjike Kaiko, a regional spokesperson for Congo’s military, said in an interview in Goma, the lakeside capital of North Kivu province that borders Rwanda. Rwanda’s government denies the accusations.

Tantalum is on a list of mineral resources that have raised international red flags for helping to fund years of conflict in Congo. For over a decade, industry groups that include companies like Intel Corp. and Apple Inc. have made efforts to ensure their mineral supply chains are conflict-free....

....MUCH MORE

Our rule of thumb is go to the conflict zones and there you will find extractive resource opportunities. Unfortunately you also find the U.N. saying there are 5.7 million people internally displaced in North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri provinces while ReliefWeb puts the number at 7.1 million in their March 18 report. 

Additionally the Famine Early Warning System Network has begun monitoring the price of the primary food staples in the region, maize and cassava. About as basic as it gets.

So tantalum. And war. Like Marlow's story in Heart of Darkness, it is alternately a dream and a nightmare/