coltan

The plot addresses current global issues like the war for the control of the supply of coltan or tantalite, a mineral so valuable due to its content of tantalum an niobium (columbite) that has become essential in the developped world technology. A great novel charged with action, intrigue and top-class story-telling.

I have been an admirer of Alberto Vazquez-Figueroa's books since I was a teenager. He has been always my literary idol, and the inspiration to become a journalist, a war correspondent and finally a successful novelist. (Arturo Perez Reverte, International bestselling author of The Queen of the South.) Vazquez-Figueroa is one of the best Spanish writers of our time, and certainly the most commercially successful! (Jose Manuel Lara, President and founder of the Grupo Planeta, the largest publishing group of Spain and Latin America)

the metal tantalum

The metal tantalum is a book telling a basic history, physical, electrical and chemical properties of tantalum. Also shows some fabricating techniques. While certainly not an indepth look at this metal it would serve as an excellent introduction to this metal.  Tantalum was discovered in Sweden in 1802 by Anders Ekeberg. One year earlier, Charles Hatchett had discovered the element columbium. In 1809, the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston compared the oxides derived from both columbium—columbite, with a density 5.918 g/cm3, and tantalum—tantalite, with a density 7.935 g/cm3, and concluded that the two oxides, despite their difference in measured density, were identical. He decided to keep the name tantalum. After Friedrich Wöhler confirmed these results, it was thought that columbium and tantalum were the same element. This conclusion was disputed in 1846 by the German chemist Heinrich Rose, who argued that there were two additional elements in the tantalite sample, and he named them after the children of Tantalus: niobium (from Niobe, the goddess of tears), and pelopium (from Pelops). The supposed element "pelopium" was later identified as a mixture of tantalum and niobium, and it was found that the niobium was identical to the columbium already discovered in 1801 by Hattchet.




The differences between tantalum and niobium were demonstrated unequivocally in 1864 by Christian Wilhelm Blomstrand, and Henri Etienne Sainte-Claire Deville, as well as by Louis J. Troost, who determined the empirical formulas of some of their compounds in 1865 . Further confirmation came from the Swiss chemist Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac, in 1866, who all proved that there were only two elements. These discoveries did not stop scientists from publishing articles about the so-called ilmenium until 1871. De Marignac was the first to produce the metallic form of tantalum in 1864, when he reduced tantalum chloride by heating it in an atmosphere of hydrogen. Early investigators had been only able to produce impure tantalum, and the first relatively pure ductile metal was produced by Werner von Bolton in 1903. Wires made with metallic tantalum were used for light bulb filaments until tungsten replaced it in widespread use.

Coltan Mining in the DRC

On the demand side, exporters and strategic planners focusing on tantalum fixed capacitors in Sweden face a number of questions. Which countries are supplying tantalum fixed capacitors to Sweden? How important is Sweden compared to others in terms of the entire global and regional market? How much do the imports of tantalum fixed capacitors vary from one country of origin to another in Sweden? On the supply side, Sweden also exports tantalum fixed capacitors. Which countries receive the most exports from Sweden? How are these exports concentrated across buyers? What is the value of these exports and which countries are the largest buyers? This report was created for strategic planners, international marketing executives and import/export managers who are concerned with the market for tantalum fixed capacitors in Sweden. With the globalization of this market, managers can no longer be contented with a local view. Nor can managers be contented with out-of-date statistics which appear several years after the fact. I have developed a methodology, based on macroeconomic and trade models, to estimate the market for tantalum fixed capacitors for those countries serving Sweden via exports, or supplying from Sweden via imports. It does so for the current year based on a variety of key historical indicators and econometric models. In what follows, Chapter 2 begins by summarizing where Sweden fits into the world market for imported and exported tantalum fixed capacitors. The total level of imports and exports on a worldwide basis, and those for Sweden in particular, is estimated using a model which aggregates across over 150 key country markets and projects these to the current year. From there, each country represents a percent of the world market. This market is served from a number of competitive countries of origin. Based on both demand- and supply-side dynamics, market shares by country of origin are then calculated across each country market destination. These shares lead to a volume of import and export values for each country and are aggregated to regional and world totals. In doing so, we are able to obtain maximum likelihood estimates of both the value of each market and the share that Sweden is likely to receive this year. From these figures, rankings are calculated to allow managers to prioritize Sweden compared to other major country markets. In this way, all the figures provided in this report are forecasts that can be combined with internal information sources for strategic planning purposes.