Tantalum mine production

MIBK is a highly effective separating agent for metals from solutions of their salts and is used in the mining industries to extract plutonium from uranium, niobium from tantalum, and zirconium from hafnium (112,113). MIBK is also used in the production of specialty surfactants for inks (qv), paints, and pesticide formulations, examples of which are 2,4,7,9-tetramethyl-5-decyn-4,7-diol and its ethoxylated adduct. Other appHcations include as a solvent for adhesives and wax/oil separation (114), in leather (qv) finishing, textile coating, and as a denaturant for ethanol formulations. 

Niobium is the 33rd most abundant element in the Earths crust and is considered rare. It does not exist as a free elemental metal in nature. Rather, it is found primarily in several mineral ores known as columbite (Fe, Mn, Mg, and Nb with Ta) and pyrochlore [(Ca, NaljNbjOg (O, OH, F)]. These ores are found in Canada and Brazil. Niobium and tantalum [(Fe, Mn)(Ta, Nbl Og] are also products from tin mines in Malaysia and Nigeria. Niobium... 

A pegmatite at Bernic Lake, Manitoba in Canada is mined for tantalum, niobium and lithium. A lepidolite in the pegmatite is, in addition, the only known commercial source of the element rubidium. In North Carolina, a rich Hthium source is known as the tin-spodumene belt . The ore was used for production of Hthium carbonate until 1998, when the last mine there was closed. 

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