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Tantalum rally continues as shortage looms, traders warn

July 09, 2010 - 00:00 GMT Location: London

KEYWORDS: tantalum , Chinese , Democratic Republic of Congo , scrap

Offers for tantalum scrap are soaring as high as $330 per kg as the market faces a looming shortage that has brought prices for secondary metal in line with tantalum bars, traders said on Thursday

Wodgina supplied 30% of the world’s tantalum the year it closed, but is still on care and maintenance with no firm date for a restart, while Australian-owned Gippsland’s Abu Dabbab project in Egypt is not scheduled to start until 2012. “For some reason, the Congo aspect really started playing into it in late March, early April,” a second trader told MB. “There is a shortage looming and if Wodgina isn’t going...

All material subject to strictly enforced copyright laws. © Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC.

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