Prices

The Coltan price is derived from the percentage of Tantalum it contains thus correlates to the international price of Ta. 99.95% Ta is the typically quoted metal commodity benchmark for Tantalum. The average market price for Tantalum reached a peak of just over US$100/lb in mid-2018 before declining through to US$43/lb in August 2019 as Australian producers ramped up. With the decline in Australian output through H2 2019, however, prices began to rise once more and reached US$62/lb by March 2020.

Tantalum and Niobium are not exchange-traded products and thus no ‘official’ pricing benchmark exists. However, several data services offer up-to-date pricing which has become the unofficial benchmark in the industry. They obtain market information by communicating regularly with a large number of buyers (smelters) and suppliers to get an actual understanding of supply and demand situation and the current prices materials are trading at. Some of the better-known data providers are:

www.fastmarkets.com
www.asianmetal.com
www.metal-pages.com
www.platts.com
www.crugroup.com

In July 2020 Metal Bulletin / Fastmarkets  announced that had launched a pricing assessment for Tantalum based on the following specifications.   

Tantalite, basis min 25% Ta2O5, cif China
Quality: Lump 0-10mm grain concentrate; Ta2O5 25% min; Nb2O5 15% min; U3O8+ThO2 0.10% max
Quantity: Minimum 10-tonne lots
Location: CIF main ports China
Unit: USD per lb Ta2O5

Chart Source: https://roskill.com

Tantalum concentrate price (US$/lb Ta2O5 nominal) 2022 forecast

Tantalum concentrate price (US$/lb Ta2O5 nominal) 2022 forecast