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Coltan (short for columbite–tantalites and known industrially as tantalite) is a dull black metallic ore from which the elements niobium and tantalum are extracted. The niobium-dominant mineral in coltan is columbite (after niobium's original American name columbium), and the tantalum-dominant mineral is tantalite. [1]
The mineral group tantalite [(Fe, Mn)Ta 2 O 6] is the primary source of the chemical element tantalum, a corrosion (heat and acid) resistant metal. It is chemically similar to columbite , and the two are often grouped together as a semi-singular mineral called coltan or "columbite-tantalite" in many mineral guides.
Tantalite (Fe, Mn)Ta 2 O 6 is the most important mineral for tantalum extraction. Tantalite has the same mineral structure as columbite (Fe, Mn) (Ta, Nb) 2 O 6; when there is more tantalum than niobium it is called tantalite and when there is more niobium than tantalum is it called columbite (or niobite).
Tantalum ores often contain significant amounts of niobium, which is itself a valuable metal.As such, both metals are extracted so that they may be sold. The overall process is one of hydrometallurgy and begins with a leaching step; in which the ore is treated with hydrofluoric acid and sulfuric acid to produce water-soluble hydrogen fluorides, such as the heptafluorotantalate.
Columbite, also called niobite, niobite-tantalite and columbate, with a general chemical formula of (Fe II,Mn II)Nb 2 O 6, is a black mineral group that is an ore of niobium. It has a submetallic luster, a high density, and is a niobate of iron and manganese. Niobite has many applications in areospace, construction and the medical industry.
The research team at the Marropino mine had teamed up with a multidisciplinary team of the University of Glasgow to optimize the recovery of tantalum from its ore, as 50% of the rare metal was usually not extracted and disposed of as mineral waste. [11] The research concluded: [12]
The pegmatite ore body now mined by the Tanco Mine was discovered in the late 1920s and the first mining started in 1929. Several times the mine was closed, reopened and closed, until in 1969 when it was reopened as a tantalum mine.
The microlite group belongs to a large pyrochlore supergroup that occurs in pegmatites and constitutes an ore of tantalum. It has a Mohs hardness of 5.5 and a variable specific gravity of 4.2 to 6.4. It occurs as disseminated microscopic subtranslucent to opaque octahedral crystals with a refractive index of 2.0 to 2.2. Microlite is also called ...